A ziggurat is a large ancient Mesopotamian temple that was used for religious ceremonies. Did you know that only one person was allowed inside the ziggurat? Did you know that the only person allowed was the priest-king of that city state? Pretty strange right? Well, a couple of days ago, we built our own ziggurat. (One that only Lego guys can go into!) The most famous ziggurat is The Ziggurat at Ur in Iraq. It is still standing today!
The first thing we did was gather up our supplies. We needed some foam bricks, glue, two serrated knives, a foam block, a foam ball, and some funky background music courtesy of The Doors. Then we got started. We needed to measure the materials and make a sketch of what we wanted the finished product to look like. It involved more math than we expected. We succeeded in our attempt to build the first level six layers high. Then we proceeded to build the top two levels. Details like stairs and doorways took the longest to complete. We had to figure out the best way to use the materials we had left. In the pictures below, Jack and I are shown cutting bricks, this is because we needed to cover all the white areas. Ava was busy gluing them to the ziggurat. Then when we finished that, we added a new tool: PAINT! Jack, Ava and I painted the doors, passages and dome. Finally, the ziggurat is finished. The project took two days to complete. We had so much fun doing this project. On behalf of the McHugh kids I would like to thank my Mom for taking pictures and buying the supplies and my Dad for coming home early to do it with us.
The Galileo School 
That’s so cool! It came out great. This project looks like a lot of fun. I might try it. From Shea
Wow! That is an excellent model! I think there might be some future architects there – or Priests and Priestesses maybe. It is interesting that many different cultures have “ziggurat like” buildings. Iraq, Egypt, Guatemala, Mexico, Cambodia, Las Vegas …
I’m really impressed with your finished project! It looks great. it took you 2 days? Can you imagine how long it took to build something like this back in the days of old Mesopotamia? No heavy machinery, just hands and muscles! Can you tell me what they made the bricks out of?
This is Payton on Mommy’s user: They are just project bricks from the store. (Not real bricks, styro-foam I think.)