[Assyrian ziqquratu (also zigg-, sig(g)-, -ur(r)at) height, pinnacle, top of a mountain, temple-tower; cf. zaqaru to be high (Muss-Arnolt).] A staged tower of pyramid form in which each successive story is smaller than that below it, so as to leave a terrace all round; an Assyrian or Babylonian temple-tower.
1864. Rawlinson, Anc. Mon. II. viii. 240. Its ziggurat or tower was perhaps the building which rises in a pyramidical form on the northern edge of the great platform at Kileh-Sherghat.
1877. trans. Lenormat’s Chaldæan Magic, xv. 227. The ziggurrat or sacred tower of the palace of Khorsabad.
1883. P. H. Hunter, Story of Daniel, ix. 156. In all directions rise the lofty ziggurats or towers of the temples.
1898. H. H. Howorth, in Engl. Hist. Rev., Jan., 5. The ziggurat, or great tower, of which the Tower of Babel was a famous example.
1908. G. Buchanan Gray, in Expositor, May, 402. The zikkurats at Erech and Borsippa.
