Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat

Chogha Zanbil is one of the best-preserved ziggurats in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site — a massive stepped mud-brick temple complex built by the ancient Elamite civilization around 3,250 years ago. It stands about 80 km north of Ahvaz in flat desert, visible from a considerable distance, its tiered mass rising improbably from the featureless plain.

The site consists of the central ziggurat (originally five storeys, now three, but still about 25 metres high), the surrounding walled city, and several subsidiary temples and royal tombs. Walking around the base of the ziggurat and peering into the royal burials gives a genuine sense of a civilization quite different from the better-known Mesopotamian cultures of Iraq. The Elamites had their own language, their own gods, and their own artistic traditions — Chogha Zanbil is the best place to encounter them. Allow two to three hours and bring water; the site is exposed and shade is scarce.

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A story
Chogha Zanbil was built around 1250 BC by the Elamite king Untash-Napirisha as a sacred city devoted to the god Inshushinak. It was never finished — the king died before completion and the city was largely abandoned. When archaeologists began excavating in the 1930s, they found the ziggurat essentially as it had been left three thousand years earlier, its mud-brick courses still standing to nearly 25 metres.