bout the same height.

The average number of stages of the zikkurat appears to have been three,
as at Nippur and Ur, or four, as at Larsa.[1328] In the pictorial
representations of the towers,[1329] we similarly find either three or
four. In these smaller zikkurats, the height of each tower, as in the
first three stories of the tower at Borsippa, appears to have been
alike; but the mass diminished in proportion in order to secure a space
for a staircase leading from one story to the other. This method of
ascent was older than the winding balustrade, which was better adapted
to the more elaborate structures of later times. No doubt, as the towers
increased in height, other variations were introduced--as, _e.g._, in
the proportions of the stories--without interfering with the essential
principle of the zikkurat.

The ungainly appearance presented by the huge towers was somewhat
relieved by decorations of the friezes and by the judicious use of
color. Enameled bricks of bright hues, such as yellow and blue,[1330]
became common, and in the case of some of the towers it would appear
that a different color was chosen for each story. Whether all the bricks
in each story were colored or only those at the edge, or, perhaps, some
rows, it is impossible to say. From Herodotus' description of the seven
concentric walls of Ecbatana,[1331] in which each wall was distinguished
by a certain color, the conclusion has been drawn that the same
colors--white, black, scarlet, blue, orange, silver, and gold--were
employed by the Babylonians for the stages of their towers; but there is
no satisfactory evidence that this was the case. That these colors were
brought into connection with the planets, as some scholars have
supposed, is highly improbable.

As already pointed out, no special stress seems to have been laid upon
the number of stories of which the zikkurat consisted, but the natural
result of ambition and rivalry among builders tended towards an increase
of the height, and this end could be most readily attained by adding to
the number of stories. Still, there may have been some symbolism which
led to the choice of three, four, or seven stories, inasmuch as these
numbers have a sacred import among so many nations.[1332] For the number
seven, the influence of cosmological associations is quite clear. The
two most famous of the zikkurats of seven stages were those in Babylon
and in Borsippa, opposite Babylon. The latter bears the sign