Kur,--'a mountain house'
on a small scale, a miniature Kharsag-kurkura. In confirmation of this
view, it is sufficient to point out that E-Kur is not merely the name of
the temple to Bel at Nippur, but is frequently used as a designation for
temple in general; and, moreover, a plural is formed of the word which
is used for divinities.[1317] In Assyria we find one of the oldest
temples bearing the name E-kharsag-kurkura,[1318] that stamps the
edifice as the reproduction of the 'mountain of all lands'; and there
are other temples that likewise bear names[1319] in which the idea of a
mountain is introduced.

To produce the mountain effect, a mound of earth was piled up and on
this mound a terrace was formed that served as the foundation plane for
the temple proper, but it was perfectly natural also that instead of
making the edifice consist of one story, a second was superimposed on
the first so as to heighten the resemblance to a mountain. The outcome
of this ideal was the so-called staged tower, known as the _zikkurat_.
The name signifies simply a 'high' edifice, and embodies the same idea
that led the Canaanites and Hebrews to call their temples 'high
places.'[1320]

The oldest zikkurat as yet found is the one excavated by Drs. Peters and
Haynes at Nippur,[1321] the age of which can be traced back to the
second dynasty of Ur--about 2700 B.C. This appears to have consisted of
three stages, one superimposed on the other. There is a reference to a
zikkurat in the inscriptions of Gudea that may be several centuries
older; but since beneath the zikkurat at Nippur remains of an earlier
building were found, it is a question whether the staged tower
represents the oldest type of a Babylonian temple. At no time does any
special stress appear to have been laid upon the number of stories of
which the zikkurat was to consist. It is not until a comparatively late
period that rivalry among the rulers and natural ambition led to the
increase of the superimposed stages until the number seven was reached.
The older zikkurats were imposing chiefly because of the elevation of
the terrace on which they were erected, and inasmuch as the ideal of the
temple is realized to all practical purposes by the erection of a high
edifice on an elevated mound, the chief stress was laid upon the height
of the terrace. The terrace, in a certain sense, is the original
zikkurat--the real 'high place'--and the temple of one story naturally
precedes the st