<P> One of the best - preserved ziggurats is Chogha Zanbil in western Iran . The Sialk ziggurat, in Kashan, Iran, is the oldest known ziggurat, dating to the early 3rd millennium BCE . Ziggurat designs ranged from simple bases upon which a temple sat, to marvels of mathematics and construction which spanned several terraced stories and were topped with a temple . </P> <P> An example of a simple ziggurat is the White Temple of Uruk, in ancient Sumer . The ziggurat itself is the base on which the White Temple is set . Its purpose is to get the temple closer to the heavens, and provide access from the ground to it via steps . The Mesopotamians believed that these pyramid temples connected heaven and earth . In fact, the ziggurat at Babylon was known as Etemenankia or "House of the Platform between Heaven and Earth". </P> <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>

What two types of architecture did the sumerians originate