Etemenanki

Etemenanki was the monumental ziggurat at the heart of ancient Babylon, situated in what is now the Babylon archaeological area in Iraq. It served as a terraced temple tower associated with the worship of Marduk and was one of the city’s most prominent religious structures.

Accounts and inscriptions indicate the ziggurat was rebuilt multiple times during the first millennium BCE, with a notable reconstruction under Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BCE. In antiquity it rose in successive stepped levels; by the modern era only ruins and foundations were visible, and much of the original structure has been lost to time and later disturbance.

Archaeological investigations have exposed the site’s foundations and brickwork but large-scale reconstruction has not restored the original height or form. The remains lie within the broader Babylon site near the modern town of Hillah.

The ziggurat sits in central-southern Iraq at the Babylon archaeological complex, on the banks of the Euphrates plain in Babylon Governorate, within the wider landscape of ancient Mesopotamian settlement.

• Religious function: Dedicated in antiquity to the chief Babylonian god Marduk, the structure was a stepped ziggurat that dominated the city's temple complex.
• Reconstruction history: Rebuilt several times in the first millennium BCE, the last major reconstruction is attributed to Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BCE; only ruins and foundations remain today.