Art and Architecture History

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 Assyria is the name for a part of ancient Mesopotamia

located on the upper Tigris The principal cities of Assyria were Nineveh, Dun, Khorsabad, Nimrudand Assur The Assyrians were great warriors and hunters, and this was reflected in their art They produced violent sculptures and relief carving in stone that was used to ornament their houses

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 During the Assyrian periods, temples lost their

importance to palaces. Assyrian kings built walled cities, in which palaces took precedent over religious buildings. Palaces were raised on brick platforms, and their principal entrance ways were flanked by guardian figures of human headed bulls or lions of stone. Their halls and corridors were lined with pictures and inscriptions carved in relief on stone slabs up to 9 feet high.
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 The interiors were richly decorated and luxurious.

The walls of cities were usually strengthened by many

towers serving as defensive positions. The city of Khorsabad demonstrate the might and authority of the Assyrian kings. It is also at this place that the remains of Assyrian architecture can be found.

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 Khorsabad was designed as the royal capital of Assyria

The city was built on a flat land with an area of about a

square mile and was enclosed by a double wall with seven city gates Only a part of the city including palaces, temples and administrative headquarters was built. The palace was located on the north west side of the city.

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 The palace is approached at ground level through a

walled citadel. Within the citadel is found the main palace, two minor palaces and a temple dedicated to Nabu. The main palace was set on a platform located on the northern side of the citadel. All the buildings within the citadel were arranged around courtyards

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 The palace was arranged around two major courtyards

about which were grouped smaller courtyards. The palace consisted of large and smaller rooms with the throne room being the largest The building was decorated with relief sculpture and glazed brick

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 After the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC and the end of the

Assyrian civilization, focus of Mesopotamian civilization shifted to old Babylon. A new dynasty of kings, including Nebuchadnezzar, revived old Babylonian culture to create a NeoBabylonian civilization. Old Sumerian cities were rebuilt

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 The capital old Babylon was enlarged and heavily

fortified. It was also adorned with magnificent new buildings. The traditional style of Mesopotamian building reached its peak during the period. Traditional building was enhanced by a new form of faade ornament consisting of figures designed in colored glazed brick work

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 From the palace originated a procession street that

cuts through the city raised above the ground to the tower of Babel. The procession street enters the city through the famous Ishtar gate. The Ishtar gate is built across the double walls of the city fortification. The gate had a pair of projecting towers on each wall

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All the facades of gates

Ishtar Gate

and adjoining streets were faced with blue glazed bricks and ornamented with figures of heraldic animals-lions, bulls, and dragons These were modeled in relief and glazed in other colors None of the buildings of old Babylon has survived to the present age.

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 Nebuchadnezzars palace covered a land area of 900

feet by 600 feet. It had administrative offices, barracks, the kings harem, private apartment all arranged around five courtyards. The palace is also praised for its legendary hanging garden. This is recorded as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but exact knowledge of the nature of this garden is not known
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 Temples and towers were also prominent architectural

elements of Babylon.
The legendary tower of Babel located at the end of

procession street is mentioned in the Christian bible.

There is also no information about the design and

construction of the tower.

Most of what is available on the tower is hypothetical
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 The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are considered to be

one of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. They were built in the ancient city-state of Babylon, near present-day Al Hillah, Babil, in Iraq. They are sometimes called the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis (in reference to the legendary Queen Semiramis). The gardens were supposedly built by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC. He is reported to have constructed the gardens to please his homesick wife, Amytis of Media, who longed for the trees and fragrant plants of her homeland Persia. The gardens were destroyed by several earthquakes after the second century BC.
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 The gardens didn't actually hang: They draped over the

sides of terraces on a brick structure. Some accounts of the gardens claim that they grew as high as 75 feet in the air and that people could walk beneath them.

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 The Persian empire started in about 560 BC when Cyrus

the great from the province of Fars swept over the region with his powerful cavalry. By the end of the century, Cyrus and his successors, Darius 1 and Xerxes had conquered the entire civilized world from Indus to Danube River with the exception of Greece. It was the wish of the Persians to construct great buildings. They were to achieve greatness with their architectural solutions. The architectural solutions were a synthesis of ideas gathered from almost all parts of their empire and from the Greeks an Egyptians
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 Their materials of construction was also from different

locations. Material included mud-brick from Babylon, wooden roof beams from Lebanon, precious material from India and Egypt, Stone columns quarried and carved by Ionic Greeks. Despite sourcing materials and ideas from different areas, their architecture was original and distinctive in style

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 Persian architecture achieved its greatest

monumentality at Persepolis. It was constructed as a new capital for the Persian Empire. The city was started 510 BC and finished in 460 BC. It is set along the face of a mountain, and levelled to create a large platform 1800 feet by 900 feet. It was surrounded by a fortification wall. The site was more than half covered by buildings
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PALACE LAYOUT

The palace consisted of three parts: An approach of monumental staircases, gate ways and avenues Two great state halls towards the center of the platform The palace of Xerxes, the harem, and other living quarters at the south end of the ID/ 353/12 AAH-02 ppt site

 Structurally, the buildings relied on a hypostyle

scheme throughout (hypostyle hall has a flat ceiling which is supported by columns ). They used it to achieve spaces of varying scale. Some of the spaces were very big and generally square in plan. The spaces were enclosed by mud brick walls. The most impressive aspect of the palace was the royal audience hall

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 The Royal audience hall was a square 250 feet in length

and contained 36 slender columns widely space & 67 feet high. The columns had a lower diameter of only 5 feet. The centers of the columns were spaced 20 feet or 4 diameters apart. The column was the greatest invention of the Persians. The columns were fluted and stand on inverted bell shaped bases. Their capital combine Greek motifs with Egyptian palm leaf topped by an impost of paired beast
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 Another famous aspect of the palace at persepolis was

the throne room. This was also known as hall of a 100 columns. The columns in the room were 37 feet high, with a diameter of only 3 feet. They were spaced 20 feet apart or seven diameters from axis to axis. The slim nature of the column created room and spacious feeling in the room when compared to the audience hall
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 The monumental

entrance to Persepolis is also one of the unique aspects of the Palace. The monumental gateway ensure a dramatic entry to the Palace. It was heavily adorned with relief sculpture ornamenting its stairway
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 In some places, the

sculpture shows delegates from the different parts of the Persian bringing gifts and rare animals to the king during celebrations. In some places, royal guards and nobles of the imperial court are shown. Elsewhere, the king is seen in conflict with animals or seated beneath a ceremonial umbrella
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The ruins of Persepolis have survived to the present day

Existing ruins however

give a faulty expression of the citys original appearance

Some columns supporting the halls of the great halls have survived The mud brick fabric of the palace and its enclosing walls have perished completely

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 Only the

sculptures which adorn doorways or windows and openings and the relief ornamenting its entrance way remain
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