The architecture of the Babylonians seems to have culminated in the Temple.  While their palaces, their bridges, their walls, even their private houses were remarkable, their grandest works, their most elaborate efforts, were dedicated to the honor and service, not of man, but of God.  The Temple takes in Babylonia the same sort of rank which it has in Egypt and in Greece.  It is not, as in Assyria, a mere adjunct of the palace.  It stands by itself, in proud independence, as the great building of a city, or a part of a city; it is, if not absolutely larger, at any rate loftier and more conspicuous than any other edifice:  it often boasts a magnificent adornment:  the value of the offerings which are deposited in it is enormous:  in every respect it rivals the palace, while in some it has a decided preeminence.  It draws all eyes by its superior height and sometimes by its costly ornamentation; it inspires awe by the religious associations which belong to it; finally, it is a stronghold as well as a place of worship, and may furnish a refuge to thousands in the time of danger.

A Babylonian temple seems to have stood commonly within a walled enclosure.  In the case of the great temple of Belus at Babylon, the enclosure is said to have been a square of two stades each way, or, in other words, to have contained an area of thirty acres.  The temple itself ordinarily consisted of two parts.  Its most essential feature was a ziggurat, or tower, which was either square, or at any rate rectangular, and built in stages, the smallest number of such stages being two, and the largest known number seven.  At the summit of the tower was probably in every case a shrine, or chapel, of greater or less size, containing altars and images.  The ascent to this was on the outside of the towers, which were entirely solid; and it generally wound round the different faces of the towers, ascending them either by means of steps or by an inclined plane.  Special care was taken with regard to the emplacement of the tower, either its sides or its angles being made exactly to confront the cardinal points.  It is said that the temple-towers were used not merely for religious purposes but also as observatories, a use with a view to which this arrangement of their position would have been serviceable.

Besides the shrine at the summit of the temple-tower or ziggurat, there was commonly at the base of the tower, or at any rate somewhere within the enclosure, a second shrine or chapel, in which the ordinary worshipper, who wished to spare himself the long ascent, made his offerings.  Here again the ornamentation was most costly, lavish use being made of the precious metals for images and other furniture.  Altars of different sizes were placed in the open air in the vicinity of this lower shrine, on which were sacrificed different classes of victims, gold being used occasionally as the material of the altar.