The Textbook of Architecture

Rules · Cities · Ornament · Use

A raised road for the god, through a gate of glazed brick

Raise and pave the processional road from the city gate to the god’s temple, wall it on both sides, and build the gate of glazed brick bearing the beasts of the gods, with cedar roofs and bronze-clad doors.

The Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way running south past the palace. Open in Models ↗

At the New Year festival the statue of Marduk left Esagila and went out along the Processional Way to the festival house beyond the walls. Nebuchadnezzar raised the road above the old street, paved it with slabs of limestone and red breccia, lined it with walls of glazed brick bearing striding lions, and rebuilt the Ishtar Gate over it in blue glaze with rows of bulls and dragons, the beasts of Adad and Marduk. His inscriptions describe the work much as the excavators found it.

Related rules

Cite this page Chris Paton, “A raised road for the god, through a gate of glazed brick”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/processional-way. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.