Chogha Zanbil Chogha Zanbil was a religious city of the Elamite people, who lived in what is now Khozestan. The Elamites were an important part of Ancient Iran between 2800 and 500 BC. They were mentioned in the Torah, or Old Testament of the Bible, and they had a strong influence on the famous Achaemanian dynasty of Iran which came after them. Chogha Zanbil, which was also known as Dur Untash city, featured a 5 storey mud brick ziggurat. Built on a hill of the west bank of the Dez River between Shush and Shushtar in about 1250 BC, the city had an area of about 100 hectares encircled by an outer wall, probably around 10 m high and 5 m thick. All the buildings and walls were made of mud bricks, but some of the bricks were made of broken bricks mixed in to the mud and others were covered in bitumen to make them weather resistant. The ziggurat featured several temples, but there were many other temples and palaces in the complex, as the Elamites had a polytheistic religion.

These cylindrical structures are called Shushnuiripi, which some archeologists believe to have been used as a type of calendar

A vast number of these bricks had cuniform inscriptions on them providing a narration of the background to this ziggurat and proving Iranians had an advanced literature in 1250 BC

<><><><><><> To prevent water erosion, these waterways fed excess water through a carefully constructed drainage system.

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This water structure is made of water resistant bricks covered in bitumen and it was part of a vast network of dams and subterranean water tunnels. Some believe this to be one of the world’s oldest water purification systems.