<P> An example of an extensive and massive ziggurat is the Marduk ziggurat, of Etemenanki, of ancient Babylon . Unfortunately, not much of even the base is left of this massive 91 meter tall structure, yet archeological findings and historical accounts put this tower at seven multicolored tiers, topped with a temple of exquisite proportions . The temple is thought to have been painted and maintained an indigo color, matching the tops of the tiers . It is known that there were three staircases leading to the temple, two of which (side flanked) were thought to have only ascended half the ziggurat's height . </P> <P> Etemenanki, the name for the structure, is Sumerian and means "temple of the foundation of heaven and earth". The date of its original construction is unknown, with suggested dates ranging from the fourteenth to the ninth century BCE, with textual evidence suggesting it existed in the second millennium . </P> <P> According to Herodotus, at the top of each ziggurat was a shrine, although none of these shrines have survived . One practical function of the ziggurats was a high place on which the priests could escape rising water that annually inundated lowlands and occasionally flooded for hundreds of kilometres, for example the 1967 flood . Another practical function of the ziggurat was for security . Since the shrine was accessible only by way of three stairways, a small number of guards could prevent non-priests from spying on the rituals at the shrine on top of the ziggurat, such as initiation rituals such as the Eleusinian mysteries, cooking of sacrificial food and burning of carcasses of sacrificial animals . Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex that included a courtyard, storage rooms, bathrooms, and living quarters, around which a city was built . </P> <P> "And as men were thereafter multiplying they constructed a very high and strong Zacualli, which means "a very high tower" in order to protect themselves when again the second world should be destroyed . At the crucial moment their languages were changed, and as they did not understand one another, they went into different parts of the world" (Don Fernando de Alvara Ixtlilxochitl, Obras Historicas, Vol . I, p. 12 .) LINK </P>

What primary purpose did the mesopotamian ziggurats serve
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