Group 3:

Alvarez
Basto
De Los Reyes
Jovida
Mariquina
Olayres
Villanueva
West Asiatic Architecture
West asiatic or mesopotamian architecture started on
4000 to 2100 B.C. present day iraq and iran. The fertile land
between the Tigris and Euphrates river who is been named
"Mesopotamia” or “the land between two rivers". The
Mesopotamian cultures did great things by exploiting their
rivers. They regulated them as best as they could and that
made possible, a fertile and even Edenesque landscape.
Four main historical periods in West Asiatic
Architecture:

1. The Babylonian Period (BCE 3000 – 1250)

2. Assyrian Period (BC 1250-612)
3. Neo Babylonian Period (BC 612-539)
4. Persian Period (BC 539-331)
Geological Influences
Babylonia or Chaldea is an alluvial district of thick mud and
clay deposited by the two rivers, the Tigris and the
Euphrates. Such soil, in which no stone was found and no
trees would grow, was eminently suitable for the making of
bricks, which thus became the usual building material in
Babylonia.
The walls were constructed of crude, sun-dried bricks
faced with kiln-baked bricks of different colors.
Geological Influences
 In Assyria there was plenty of stone in the mountains to the
north, but the Assyrian followed the Babylonians in the use of
brick; though they faced the walls internally and externally, not
with glazed bricks, but with alabaster or limestone slabs carved
with low-bas relief and inscriptions.

 In Persia there were hard, colored limestones which were used

in the building of Susa and Persepolis, and timber was used for
the roofs while Persian tiles have always been famous for their
beauty of texture and color.
Climatic Influences
Chaldea was, by reason of its situation around the river
deltas, a region of swamps and floods, besides which
torrents of rain fell for weeks at a time, and these conditions
were aggravated during the long summer by unhealthy,
miasmic exhalations.
 Assyria, nearer the mountains and farther from the river
mouths than Chaldea, had a similar estimate but with fewer
swamps and lesser miasma, but any climatic difference had
little effect on architecture, as Assyrians followed the
Babylonian style.
Climatic Influences
The dry, hot climate of the Summary:
high table-land of Persia
was striking contrast to the Chaldea -rain fells for weeks at a time
damp of the low-lying -long summer
plains of the -swarms of insects
Mesopotamia, and it
accounts for the Assyria -had a similar climate
innovation of open -fewer swamps
columned halls in the
palaces of Susa and Persia -dry, hot climate
Persepolis. -country of sunshine and deserts
-extreme of heat and cold
Chaldean Structure: Ziggurat
Assyrian Structure: Palace of Sargon
Persian Structure: Palace of Persepolis
Religious Influences
The polytheism of Babylonia and Assyria was variously
expressed, in the worship of heavenly bodies, divisions of the
universe, and local deities. The priests, as depositories of
wisdom, arrogated to themselves the power of reading the
stars, of divination, and to interpreting the will of the gods,
and for these astrologer-priests the towering ziggurats or
temple observatories were erected. The Babylonians and
Assyrians were not great tomb builders as they had not the
strong belief of the Egyptians in a future life.
Towering Ziggurats
Religious Influences
The religion of the Persians based on the teachings of
Zoroaster, was a system of ethical forces, good and evil at
war from the beginning of time, with a belief in the final
triumph of good. Fire was held to be the manifestation of
good, and fire worship needed no temples, but only altars
for the sacrificial flame, and thus in Persia we must not look
for temple remains, nor expect religion to have exercised
much influence on architecture.
Social Influences
In Babylon, a powerful priestly class arrogated to itself the
learning known as “Chaldean wisdom”. The degree of
civilization reached by the Babylonians was extraordinary:
they had an elaborate legal system, cities had rights and
charters, there were feudal holdings, a system of police and
even a postal service. They practiced a cuneiform system of
writing on clay tablets which have proved more lasting than
the Egyptian records on perishable papyrus.
Cuneiform Writing
Social Influences
The Babylonians were primarily traders in origin and
commercial life flourished. The people were divided into
nobles with hereditary estates, a landless class of freemen,
and lastly slaves, a social system that is not only Medieval but
almost modern in some aspects
Social Influences
In Assyria a military autocracy with a conscript army was the
dominating class.
The Assyrians were fighters and sportsmen rather than
traders like the Babylonians. Assyrian wall sculptures form an
illustrated history of the battles and exploits from monarchs;
there is little reference to religion, with its sacrificial rites, on
these delicately incised slabs, which are devoted to war and
chase, and the trail of cruelty is over them all.
Social Influences
The Persian domination was due to the military superiority of
this hardy, upland race, which gradually imposed its
civilization on Western Asia under the rule of the Satraps.
They were soldiers all; landowners as horsemen and people
as infantry.
Historical Influences
The historical period is taken to begin c.3000BCE with the
bringing to perfection of the art of writing and the full
development of urban life; but as in the case of Egypt, the
Mesopotamian civilization had been shaping many
centuries previously. There are remains of important buildings
that can be ascribed to an „archaic‟ stage, c.3500-300BCE.
There are four main historical periods:
1. The Babylonian Period (BCE 3000-1250). Little is known of this
period until about BCE 2500 when rivalry existed between
the Babylonian cities. In BCE 2250 the great King
Hammurabi established the domination of Babylon. The
Babylonian power, however, later declined under the
attacks of Hittites and Kassites, until BCE 1700 Assyria
became a separate kingdom.
2. Assyrian Period (BC 1250-612). The Assyrians conquered the
Babylonians in BC 1275 and remained the great military
power of Western Asia until the destruction of Nineveh in
BCE 606. Sargon, most famous of Assyrian Kings, defeated
the Egyptians, and like many a conqueror, he was also a
great builder, as is testified by his magnificent palace at
Khorsabad. With incursions by the Medes decline set until in
BCE 606, Nineveh was captured and destroyed, and the
Assyrian Empire divided. The new Babylonian only lasted 70
years.
3. Neo Babylonian Period, (BC 612-539). Babylonian leader
was Nabopolassar, a Chaldean. He was succeeded by his
son, Nebuchadnezzar II (605-563 BCE) of bible fame,
despoiler of Jerusalem and responsible for the captivity of
the children of Israel from 597-538 BCE. He is lastingly
associated with the wonders of Babylon, its palaces,
hanging gardens and towered walls. The dynasty ended
with Nabonidus, defeated by Persian King Cyrus in 539 BCE.
4. Persian Period (BC 539-331). The domination of Persia over
Western Asia and her struggles for a further extension of
power is reflected in her architecture. Persia conquered
Greek colonists of Asia Minor and the recurring vertical
scrolls in Persian column capitals is probably derived from
Greek examples. The Persian conquest extended to Egypt
and there seems no doubt that the impression produced by
the marvelous buildings of Memphis and Thebes caused the
introduction of the column into Persian architecture, though
in curious and grotesque forms.
The Persians under Darius invaded the Greek mainland but
they were defeated at Marathon (BC 490) and a season
expedition under Xerxes was likewise defeated at Salamis and
Platoea (BC 480-479). Under Alexander the Great (BC 333-323)
Persia became a Greek province.
Architectural
Character
Architectural Character
Babylonian-Assyrian architecture is characterized by
“Massiveness, monumentality and grandeur”. Grandeur was
produced by the towering masses of palaces and stepped
ziggurats which were planted on great platforms and
approached by broad stairways and ramps.
The Assyrian palace is designed for both internal and
external effect, (in contrast to the Egyptian temple which,
behind the massive entrance is surrounded by a plain,
forbidding girdle wall.)
The system of construction used by the Assyrians is principally
one of arch and vaults.
Pointed arch and vault was developed by the
Assyrians
Architectural Character
Persian Architecture, like the Assyrian, is principally one of
royal palaces, but it is characterized by a “light and airy
magnificence” in contrast with the ponderous solidity of
Egyptian and the towering monumentality of Assyrian
architecture. The style is columnar and trabeated with
widely spaced columns.
Architectural Character
Persian columns were long and slender with highly moulded
bases, fluted shafts and capitals of recurring vertical scrolls.
Sometimes these columns were surmounted by twin bulls,
unicorns, horses, griffins on the backs of which were placed
the cross-beams of the roof.
Babylonian Architecture ( B.C. 4000-1275)

-Ziggurat-most important structure

•Temple towers, observatories built of mud brick and faced with
baked bricks and bitumen.
• Also called as holy mountains where sacred fire is kept burning.
•Orientation of the four corners are towards the four cardinal points.
Ziggurat Development:
1. Archaic Ziggurat
2. Two or more stages type ziggurat- multi story
3. Assyrian type or seven stages ziggurat- no stairs but a continuous
ramp.
7 stages symbolizes 7 heavenly planet.
Assyrian Architecture ( B.C.1275-538)

•Chief structure – Palaces

•Temples were with or without a ziggurat.
•Introduction of polychrome, ornamental brickwork and high
fleets or pedestals, made of great stone slab.
•Presence of decorative continuous stone found in their
interiors.
Persian Architecture ( B.C.538-333)

•Persian palaces and tombs were derived from old

civilizations. Palaces and tombs at Susa and Persepolis suggest
that the Persians adopted certain features from the
conquered Assyrians, such as raised platforms, sculptured
monsters, slabs of bas-relief, besides glazed and colored
brickwork (polychrome bricks) which it is their glory to have
brought to perfection.
Terms used:

 Bas-relief. Ornament with a projection of a design from a plane

surface less than half its threedimensional form;

 Columnar and Trabeated. Type of construction consisting of

vertical columns supporting horizontal beams (as opposed to
arcuated construction)

 Corbel. An incremented wall projection used to support

additional weight, most commonly constructed of brick.

 Cuneiform. Early system of writing used by the Babylonians

 Flute. A channel of semi-circular, segmental section set parallel to
each other.

 Frieze. A decorative horizontal band;

 Gorge. projecting moulding especially used in Egyptian

ornaments.

 Shaft. Main body or trunk of a column extending from the top of

the base to the bottom of the capital.

 Vouissoir. A wedge-shaped block, normally of stone or brick,

forming part of the structure of an arch.

 Ziggurat. Temple observatory erected for astrologer-priests who

studied the stars
Reference:
History Of Architecture 1, Mapua Institute of Technology
School of Architecture Industrial Design and Built Environment
Arch. Christina Ealdama
Reference: History of Architecture by Sir Banister Fletcher, 17th ed.

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