Ishtar Gate

by Unknown Artist, -575

Year: -575
Medium: Glazed bricks with molded reliefs
Size: 14 m height × 30 m width

Where to See It

Pergamon Museum

Berlin, Germany

Permanently housed

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The Ishtar Gate was built around 575 BCE by King Nebuchadnezzar II as the ceremonial entrance to ancient Babylon. This massive structure served as the eighth gate to the inner city, opening onto the Processional Way used during New Year festivals honoring the god Marduk.

The gate's walls feature rows of glazed blue bricks decorated with relief sculptures of lions, aurochs (bulls), and dragons. Each animal represented a Babylonian deity: lions for Ishtar, goddess of war and love; aurochs for Adad, god of storms; and the snake-headed dragons called mushussu for Marduk himself.

German archaeologist Robert Koldewey excavated the gate between 1902 and 1914. Workers shipped hundreds of crates containing thousands of brick fragments to Berlin. The reconstruction took years of painstaking work, with original pieces combined with newly fired bricks to recreate the correct blue glaze. The Pergamon Museum display stands 14 meters high and 30 meters wide.

About Ishtar Gate

The brilliant blue color comes from a copper-based glaze applied to the bricks before firing. Babylonian craftsmen perfected this technique to create the vibrant lapis lazuli-like surface.

Three animals decorate the gate: lions representing Ishtar, bulls (aurochs) for Adad, and mushussu dragons for Marduk. Each symbolized a major Babylonian god.

Yes. The reconstruction contains thousands of original glazed bricks excavated from Babylon between 1902 and 1914. Gaps were filled with new bricks fired to match. Visit the Pergamon Museum to see it.

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