Choghazanbil

The large Choghazanbil temple is one of the three ancient monuments in Iran which have been registered in the Index of World Heritage. The Elamites built this temple approximately 1250 BCE and it resembles the architecture employed in the Egyptian pyramids and Mayan temples.

The king, his queen and the crown prince accompanied by his courtiers approach ziggurat mounted on royal chariots. While a large congregation of common people are watching the procession, they disembark from their chariots and enter the ziggurat precincts from the royal gate. Inside the ziggurat Shaten, the chief priest pours water on the king's hands by a pitcher. The ceremony commences with the musicians playing religious melodies by harp, lute and flute. The animals chosen for sacrifice are killed in 14 platforms built like short headless pyramids beside the temple of In-Shushinak. Then the king and his companions ascend to the second floor of the building by stairs. Here the king pours a special syrup on the altar for the intended god and accompanied by the chief priest and a small number of his attendants he ascends to the third floor. In the third floor some of his attendants remain and only the chief priest and his close associates ascend to the fourth floor. In this flour the close associates remain and the king, accompanied only by the chief priest, ascends the main temple of the ziggurat in the fifth floor.

The Choghazanbil ziggurat (building by Dur-Untash) is the only surviving ziggurat in Iran and is one of the most important remnants of the Elamite civilization. The Elamite citizens were a nation who lived in Iran about 2500 years BCE and succeeded to announce their existence at Awan (now called Shoushtar, a town in Khouzestan Province). According to the chronicles of the Old Testament, an ancient king named Kedor Laomer in Elam succeeded to extend his domain as far as Palestine (Genesis, Chapter 14). The significance of the scientific and cultural achievements of Elamites and their influence on other civilizations can be better understood when we learn that the first wheeled pitcher (the first wheeled roller) was apparently invented by human beings at Elam. On the other hand the first arched roof and its covering which is a very important technique in architecture was invented by the Elamite and used in the mausoleum of Tepti-ahar around 1360 BCE (unearthed in the excavations made at Haft Tappeh) nearly 1,500 years before such arches were used by the Romans.

Geographical Situation
Choghazanbil is located in Khouzestan Province 30 km southwest of Shusha (Susa), the famous capital of Elam at a close distance from Dez river which is one of the branches of the large Karun river. This temple and the town bearing the same name has been built on a natural earth mound because of overlooking at the adjacent plains. When the sky was clear the two important Elamite cities i.e. Shusha and Shoushtar (Âwân) were visible from that elevation.

Since long time ago because of flowing of branches of Dez and Karun rivers and the region's proximity to Shusa and trade routes and to Mesopotamia, that region had gained special significance. King Untash-Gal diverted the Karkheh river water through a canal to Choghazanbil which canal still survives.

Similarity
The old and original name of this town and its ziggurat was called Dur-Untash which according to the inscriptions discovered at the foundations of the ruined building in that town derived its name from Untash-Gal, the Elamite king (1275-1240 BCE) who was the founder of that town. This name has been repeatedly mentioned in Elamite and Assyrian inscriptions. The word `Dur' in the Akkadian and Elamite languages means a town or an enclosed and distinct region. Ziggurat in Sumerian language means ascending to heaven and has its root in the Elamite word Zagratu. Anyhow, the highest story of the ziggurat temple was called Kukunnu or Kizzum which at times that nomination was ascribed to all the stories of that temple. But nowadays the temple is called Choghazanbil which means a hill-like basket (Zanbil), because in the Dezfouli or Lori dialect Chogha means a hill.

History of Investigation and Excavations
Based on a contract signed with Nassereddin Shah, the Qajar king, with France, a French archaeologist team was sent to Khouzestan in the year 1895. But this team had based its headquarters in Shusa. However, in 1935, Brown, a New Zealand citizen who was seeking for traces of oil, while flying over that region was surprised to spot a huge earthen pile. In the same period, one of the geologists of the oil company had discovered an inscribed brick which referred to Choghazanbil and took it to the French archaeological team in Shusha. Thus the Iranian government permitted R. de Mecquenem, the representative of Louvre Museum in Paris and head of the French archaeological team in Shusa, to excavate the Choghazanbil area for a period of 5 years. De Mecquenem started his investigation and identification in the years 1936 to 1939, but the main excavation was commenced by R. Ghirshman in the year 1951.

Until 1962 Ghirshman succeeded to perform nine stages of consecutive excavations with 150 workers and in a period of 34 months he removed 200 thousand sq. meters of earth from the site by wagons and rail and succeeded to unearth the ziggurat from the depth of the earth.