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34-426: The Art Deco building was designed by Syracuse architect Melvin L. King in a consultation with Buffalo firm Bley and Lyman . The building's recessed stories resemble an ancient ziggurat or step pyramid , while other parts embrace modern technology and contemporary innovation. The steel and masonry structure is adorned with a 28-foot-tall (8.5 m) stainless steel statue called "The Spirit of Light" which depicts

68-585: A city spread, as well as a place for the people to worship. It was also a sacred structure. The biblical account of the Tower of Babel has been associated by modern scholars to the massive construction undertakings of the ziggurats of Mesopotamia , and in particular to the ziggurat of Etemenanki in Babylon in light of the Tower of Babel Stele describing its restoration by Nebuchadnezzar II . According to some historians

102-712: A symbol of optimism and progress in the context of the Great Depression. During World War II , the exterior lights were turned off as part of wartime blackouts . A 1999 renovation restored the lighting system's original vitality and enabled it to light up the building in different colors, thanks to the work of lighting designer Howard Brandston. The new lighting system was unveiled in May 2000. This renovation also fixed several other exterior details. The Vitrolite panels were repaired, and look-alike glass panels were installed to replicate ones that were missing. The "Spirit of Light" statue

136-623: A winged figure representing of the spread of electricity . In-between the display windows are tube lights, hidden behind chrome panels. According to the National Park Service: The Niagara Hudson Building in Syracuse is an outstanding example of Art Deco architecture and a symbol of the Age of Electricity. Completed in 1932, the building became the headquarters for the nation’s largest electric utility company and expressed

170-568: Is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia . It has the form of a terraced compound of successively receding stories or levels. Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah , the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near Baghdad , the no longer extant Etemenanki in Babylon , Chogha Zanbil in Khūzestān and Sialk . The Sumerians believed that the gods lived in the temple at

204-510: Is initially rather rough, then becomes of better quality with the time. Zagheh archaic painted ware (c. 6000–5500 BC) is found in Tepe Sialk I, sub-levels 1–2. This is the early painted ware, that was first excavated at Tepe Zagheh in the Qazvin plain. In sub-periods 3, 4 and 5, the pottery has a clear surface with painted decoration. Stone or bone tools were still used. The Sialk II level sees

238-479: Is reoccupied in the second half of the second millennium. This last phase of occupation of the site is divided into two periods: Sialk V and Sialk VI. The archaeological material of these two levels has been mostly found in the two necropolises, called necropolis A and necropolis B. The first represents the Sialk V level. Here are found weapons and other objects in bronze, as well as jewelry, and some iron items. The ceramic

272-469: Is the oldest known ziggurat, dating to the early 3rd millennium BCE. Ziggurat designs ranged from simple bases upon which a temple sat, to marvels of mathematics and construction which spanned several terraced stories and were topped with a temple. An example of a simple ziggurat is the White Temple of Uruk , in ancient Sumer . The ziggurat itself is the base on which the White Temple is set. Its purpose

306-465: Is to get the temple closer to the heavens, and provide access from the ground to it via steps. The Mesopotamians believed that these pyramid temples connected heaven and earth. In fact, the ziggurat at Babylon was known as Etemenanki , which means "House of the foundation of heaven and earth" in Sumerian . The date of its original construction is unknown, with suggested dates ranging from the fourteenth to

340-401: Is usually assumed that the ziggurats supported a shrine, though the only evidence for this comes from Herodotus , and physical evidence is non-existent ... The likelihood of such a shrine ever being found is remote. Erosion has usually reduced the surviving ziggurats to a fraction of their original height, but textual evidence may yet provide more facts about the purpose of these shrines. In

374-460: Is where the Proto-Elamite horizon at Sialk is located, as is also evidenced by the discovery here of some Proto-Elamite clay tablets. The ruins of what would be the oldest Ziggurat in the world are found at this same Sialk IV level. This period ends with the temporary abandonment of the site at the beginning of the third millennium. After an abandonment of more than a millennium, the Sialk site

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408-616: The Louvre , and the Institut Francais de Recherche en Iran also verifies the oldest settlements in Sialk to date to around 6000–5500 BC. The Sialk ziggurat was built around 3000 BC. Sialk, and the entire area around it, is thought to have originated as a result of the pristine large water sources nearby that still run today. The Cheshmeh ye Soleiman (Solomon's Spring) has been bringing water to this area from nearby mountains for thousands of years. The Fin garden, built in its present form in

442-485: The National Museum of Iran and in the hands of private collectors. These artifacts consisted of some very fine painted potteries. The northern mound (Tepe) is the oldest; the occupation dates back to the end of the seventh millennium BC. The mound is composed of two levels: Sialk I (the oldest), and Sialk II. Sialk I-level architecture is relatively rudimentary. Tombs containing pottery have been uncovered. The ceramic

476-615: The SIS Building in London. Sialk Tepe Sialk ( Persian : تپه سیلک ) is a large ancient archeological site (a tepe , "hill, tell ") in a suburb of the city of Kashan , Isfahan Province , in central Iran , close to Fin Garden . The culture that inhabited this area has been linked to the Zayandeh River Culture . A joint study between Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization,

510-456: The gods , and each city had its own patron god. Only priests were permitted on the ziggurat or in the rooms at its base, and it was their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. The priests were very powerful members of Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian society. One of the best-preserved ziggurats is Chogha Zanbil in western Iran . The Sialk ziggurat, in Kashan , Iran ,

544-513: The 17th century, is a popular tourist attraction. It is here that the kings of the Safavid dynasty would spend their vacations away from their capital cities. It is also here that Abu Lu'lu'a Firuz , the Persian assassin of the second caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab ( r.  634–644 ), is popularly believed to have been buried. All these remains are located in the same location where Sialk is. Tepe Sialk

578-744: The 1970s. The Al Zaqura Building is a government building situated in Baghdad . It serves the office of the prime minister of Iraq . The Babylon Hotel in Baghdad also is inspired by the ziggurat. The Chet Holifield Federal Building is colloquially known as "the Ziggurat" due to its form. It is a United States government building in Laguna Niguel , California , built between 1968 and 1971. Further examples include The Ziggurat in West Sacramento , California, and

612-547: The 21st century BC during the Third Dynasty of Ur . Ziggurats were built by ancient Sumerians , Akkadians , Elamites , Eblaites and Babylonians for local religions. Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex with other buildings. Before the ziggurats there were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the sixth millennium BCE. The ziggurats began as platforms (usually oval, rectangular or square). The ziggurat

646-505: The Sialk III and Sialk IV periods. A significant amount of metallurgical remains were found during the excavations in the 1990s and later. This includes large amounts of slag pieces, litharge cakes, and crucibles and moulds . At Tappeh Sialk, the oldest evidence of silver production in the world has been found - such as the litharge fragments and cakes. Some other ancient sites in Iran from

680-744: The Sialk Reconsideration Project. In 2008 and 2009 an Iranian team led by Hassan Fazeli Nashli and supported by Robin Coningham of the University of Durham have worked at the northern mound finding 6 Late Neolithic burials. Artifacts from the original dig ended up mostly at the Louvre , while some can be found at the British Museum , the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and

714-462: The complexity of architecture (molded bricks, use of stone) and crafts, especially metallurgical. Early excavations had recovered five Proto-Elamite tablets. Like other outlying site with Proto-Elamite writing it was abandoned for time afterward. More recent work has found evidence on the south mound of actual occupation from the Proto-Elamite period. Evidence demonstrates that Tepe Sialk was an important metal production center in central Iran during

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748-559: The design of Egyptian pyramids , especially the stepped designs of the oldest pyramids ( Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara , 2600 BCE), may have been an evolution from the ziggurats built in Mesopotamia. Others say the Pyramid of Zoser and the earliest Egyptian pyramids may have been derived locally from the bench-shaped mastaba tomb. The shape of the ziggurat experienced a revival in modern architecture and Brutalist architecture starting in

782-860: The exterior lighting system in the upper portion of the building. The year after, in January, National Grid announced plans to repair and upgrade the lighting system, following a restoration of the roof and facade. This article about a historic property or district in Onondaga County , New York , that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places , is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ziggurat A ziggurat ( / ˈ z ɪ ɡ ʊ ˌ r æ t / ; Cuneiform : 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian : ziqqurratum , D-stem of zaqārum 'to protrude, to build high', cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew zaqar (זָקַר) 'protrude' )

816-407: The first appearance of metallurgy. The archaeological material found in the buildings of this period testifies to increasing links with the outside world. The southern mound (Tepe) includes the Sialk III and IV levels. The first, divided into seven sub-periods, corresponds to the fifth millennium and the beginning of the fourth (c. 4000 BC). This period is in continuity with the previous one, and sees

850-408: The ninth century BC, with textual evidence suggesting it existed in the second millennium. Unfortunately, not much of even the base is left of this massive structure, yet archeological findings and historical accounts put this tower at seven multicolored tiers, topped with a temple of exquisite proportions. The temple is thought to have been painted and maintained an indigo color, matching the tops of

884-482: The present state of our knowledge it seems reasonable to adopt as a working hypothesis the suggestion that the ziggurats developed out of the earlier temples on platforms and that small shrines stood on the highest stages ... Access to the shrine would have been by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit. The Mesopotamian ziggurats were not places for public worship or ceremonies. They were believed to be dwelling places for

918-553: The same time have also revealed silver production, such as Arisman , and Tappeh Hissar . These sites are attributed to Sialk III-IV and Hissar II-III periods. Sialk IV level begins in the second half of the fourth millennium. For the oldest sub-periods of the Sialk IV, there are links with the Mesopotamian civilizations of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr . Later on, the material is similar to that of Susa III ( Proto-Elamite level), so this

952-480: The shrine was accessible only by way of three stairways, a small number of guards could prevent non-priests from spying on the rituals at the shrine on top of the ziggurat, such as initiation rituals like the Eleusinian mysteries , cooking of sacrificial food and burning of sacrificial animals. Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex that included a courtyard, storage rooms, bathrooms, and living quarters, around which

986-440: The technology of electricity through its modernistic design, material, and extraordinary program of exterior lighting. The design elements applied by architects Melvin L. King and Bley & Lyman transformed a corporate office tower into a widely admired beacon of light and belief in the future. With its central tower and figurative winged sculpture personifying electric lighting, the powerfully sculpted and decorated building offered

1020-494: The tiers. It is known that there were three staircases leading to the temple, two of which (side flanked) were thought to have only ascended half the ziggurat's height. According to Herodotus , at the top of each ziggurat was a shrine, although none of these shrines has survived. Functionally, ziggurats offered a high place on which priests could escape rising water that annually inundated lowlands and occasionally flooded for hundreds of kilometres. They also offered security; since

1054-504: The top of the ziggurats, so only priests and other highly-respected individuals could enter. Sumerian society offered these individuals such gifts as music, harvested produce, and the creation of devotional statues to entice them to live in the temple. The word ziggurat comes from ziqqurratum (height, pinnacle), in ancient Assyrian. From zaqārum , to be high up. The Ziggurat of Ur is a Neo-Sumerian ziggurat built by King Ur-Nammu , who dedicated it in honor of Nanna/Sîn in approximately

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1088-465: Was a mastaba -like structure with a flat top. The sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside. Each step was slightly smaller than the step below it. The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance. Kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks. The number of floors ranged from two to seven. According to archaeologist Harriet Crawford , It

1122-745: Was cleaned and polished, and rehabilitation crews remodeled the chrome nickel marquee . The building was listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places in June 2010. The listing was announced as the featured listing in the National Park Service's weekly list of June 25, 2010. It had then been nominated by New York State's Board of Historic Preservation for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in December 2009. In 2023, maintenance crews discovered an issue with

1156-432: Was excavated for three seasons (1933, 1934, and 1937) by a team headed by Roman Ghirshman and his wife Tania Ghirshman . Studies related to the site were conducted by D.E. McCown, Y. Majidzadeh, and P. Amieh. Excavation was resumed for several seasons between 1999 and 2004 by a team from the University of Pennsylvania and Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization led by Sadegh Malek Shahmirzadi called

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