WEST ASIATIC ARCHITECTURE – 4000 B.C. – 641 A.D.

INFLUENCES:

 Geographical
o West Asiatic Architecture flourished and developed in the Twin Rivers Tigris and Euphrates, also known
as Mesopotamia. It refers to Persia, Assyria, and Babylon. The fertile plains between the twin rivers were
given the name Mesopotamia – mesos (middle) and potamos (river). Known as the “cradle of
civilization”
o Mesopotamia is also part of what is known the Fertile Crescent because of the irrigated farmlands.
o Mesopotamia, now known as Iraq, has no natural barriers.
o Mesopotamia included Babylonia, Assyria, Persia, Sumer and Akkad, corresponding to modern-day Iraq,
north-eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and south-western Iran.
o Babylon was the capital of ancient of Babylonia in southern Mesopotamia now the modern Iraq.
 Geological
o Due to floods and heavy rains, it resulted in the conversion of its earthen into clay to produce bricks in
Assyria and Babylon due to rare experience of rain in Persia, they use timber and colored limestone.
 Climatic
o Mesopotamia experience floods and heavy rains that have resulted in the building of Ziggurats in Persia.
They have dry and hot climate which resulted in building open type temples.
 Religious
o Mesopotamians were superstitious, believers of symbolism and believers of genies and demons. Persian
were believers of good and evil. They believe that good usually triumphs in the end.
 Historical
o 5000 BC to 641 AD
o 3 Periods:
 Mesopotamian (Babylonian or Chaldean)
 Assyrian
 Persian
**records in cuneiform written on clay tablets
 Social and Political
o Babylonians among the 3 were considered extraordinary because they achieve highest degree of
civilization. Assyrian and Persian believe in military superiority thus manifested in their buildings.
o King Hammurabi was the 6th Babylonian King to write the first code of Laws in Human History –
Hammurabi’s Code
o Cuneiform script in clay tablets is one of the earliest known form of written expression
o Assyria was the ancient name for the northeastern part of modern Iraq and was named after its original
capital, the ancient city of Assur
o Persia, now known as Iran a once a major empire of superpower proportions

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER:

1. Massiveness
2. Monumentality
3. Grandeur

 Construction System
o Babylonian and Assyrian – Arcuated type of construction: arch, vault and flat strips, buttresses and
glazed tile adornment
o Persian – Columnar and trabeated with flat timber roof sometimes domed
  Materials used
o Reeds, rushes
o Timber is imported
o Copper, tin, lead gold, silver imported
o Only material readily available was clay, soil
o Bricks made of mud and chopped straw, sun-dried or kiln-fired
 Columns
o No columns due to lack of stone
 Roof and Ceiling
o Usually flat
o Some domes
 Wall
o Burnt crick for facing or for load bearing walls
o White-wah was common (colored only ziggurats)
 Orientation
o Oriented with four comers towards cardinal points
o Arranged around large and small courts

PERIODS: SUMERIAN ARCHITECTURE