West Asiatic Architecture - HSTARC1

Moving on to the next part of the history of architecture, we now have the “West Asiatic” architecture and structures. Tigris, Euphrates, Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia and Garden of Eden, these are just some of the keywords you might hear when we talk about the West Asiatic architecture. If we take a look of the location of the architectures of this part of history, we will see that the structures are located between the Tigris and Euphrates. Thus, the land here is pretty much abundant of resources because of the irrigation which gave it the name “Fertile Crescent”.  Mainly, the Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians and, later on, the Jews are the people who added context and made those structures. The structures made in Mesopotamia are quite interesting and you can clearly see the knowledge and artistic ideas of the people. It showed power, greatness and riches for the kingdoms inhabiting this land. The creativity and resourcefulness is also a key factor that made it possible for the people to build their homes. They have limited rocks and no lumber to build their structures because of their location. However, they are near the rivers and by being resourceful, they made materials such as the “mud bricks”. It was used as a replacement for building. More to this, this era is also quite chaotic in way, which I think is quite exciting in a way. There were kingdoms fighting over the land, so the structures were built in a limited time. But that didn’t stop them from making notable figures and structures which amazed me.

First up, I really admired “The Hanging Gardens of Babylon”. It is always depicted as a castle like structure full of green life and plants. For its beauty, structure and uniqueness, no wonder it is part of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  Another would be the “Tower of Babylon” or “Tower of Babel”. When I first saw it, there was one thing that came to mind, greatness. Yes, I think this tower depicted the power and richness of the civilization of Babylon. There were also the so called ziggurats, which particularly look like pyramids. It is quite a mysterious design and structure which was used for the mysterious religion of the people during that time. If you ask me, I think it makes you want to dig deeper to what it really is. The “Ishtar Gate” is also a symbolic and beautiful structure for the west Asiatic period.

There are really a lot more palace, tomb, temples, art and carvings here which signified and made a mark for this time. I enjoyed reading about them and I noticed that all of them were made to be big. Yes, as to be large and for everybody to see. Maybe that’s what they are trying to portray to us. Now, I can say that the people here were proud, proud of their kingdom as they should be, and thus it was projected not only to the sizes of the structures but also to the kingly design that comes along them.