A stairway to heaven (may/june '18 lite challenge)

[Tenia]

Etemenanki, the ziggurat of Marduk in Babylon is considered by many as the tower of Babel of the Old Testament. The building is now completely destroyed and the most reliable sources concerning its architecture are the results of excavations which revealed the base and remains of three staircases and the translation of a clay tablet known as the "Esagila tablet" (https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/esagila-tablet and https://www.louvre.fr/oeuvre-notices...te-de-l-esagil)

It is known that the base was approximately 91 meters long and that a main staircase to the south, approximately 51 meters long, was flanked by two perpendicular staircases. The classical interpretations of the Esagil tablet give a height of the first floor of about 33 meters and a total height of about 91 meters, the main staircase arriving at the base of the third floor. It is on these measures that most of the models and images of the ziggurat that can be seen on the Internet are based.

However, given the materials used (the construction was made of clay bricks and tar) there are doubts about the capacity of the building to support such a height and a new interpretation by archaeological researchers calculates a height of the first floor of about 15 meters for a total height of about 66 meters (https://books.google.fr/books?id=3d8...ecture&f=false in French, sorry.)
The size of the steps found during the excavations being 16 by 32 cm, this makes the main staircase arrive just at the base of the fourth floor. It is this interpretation that I have chosen to model.
I started from the measures indicated above which gives :
- first floor: 15 nindans* x 15 L, 2.5 H
- second floor: 13 x 13 L, 2 H
- third floor: 10 x10 L, 1 H
- fourth floor: 8.5 L, 1 H
- fifth floor: 7 L, 1 H
- sixth floor: 4 L, 1.5 H
- seventh floor: 2x2.5 L, 2 H
* In the model I rounded the unit of measure (nindan or gar, 5.94m) to 6 meters (I hope you will understand me!)

The upper stages stairs are hypothetical, as well as buildings around the tower.
The WIP thead is here : https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=41548

Made with Sketchup and finished and colored with Artrage. Palm trees have been downloaded from 3D warehouse (from Maria R.) due to the lack of time. Everything else is home made.



PS : I've reread the title three times before posting

[Ilanthar]

Very nice work! The blue choice make it very "babylonian" .
Fun fact, I chose "egishirgal" as a name for one of my setting, and it's another way to tell "esagila" if I'm not wrong.