At its highest level supposedly stood the temple of the moon god Nanna, the patron deity of Ur.
Unfortunately, the temple has not survived.
Some blue glazed bricks have been found which archaeologists suspect might have been part of the temple decoration.
By the 6th century BCE, the Ziggurat had already crumbled to ruins.
Unlike the ancient Egyptian pyramids, ziggurats were built of mud bricks set together with bitumen or more mud.
The bricks got damp in the rain and cracked in the summer heat.
Additionally, drains were built into the ziggurats terraces to carry away the winter rains.
who built some structure on top of the massive base replacing the modest shrine.
But while Ur-Nammu used durable bitumen mortar, Nabonidus' builders used ordinary cement.
He restored the facade and staircases by laying a layer of modern bricks to protect the original ones.
His tactics worked to some extent, and the ziggurat suffered only some minor damage by small arms fire.
The walls of the Ziggurat are still marked with hundreds of bullet and shrapnel holes.
