The article photo looks like it's actually of a Mayan pyramid, which is silly since it seems like there are perfectly impressive pictures of actual Ziggurats: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggurat" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggurat</a>.
Saw the title and was thinking, "Yes, and?" It's not exactly a crazy surprise.<p>On the other hand, the article is good as a general introduction, and I hadn't heard of the Great Mosque of Samarra (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mosque_of_Samarra" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mosque_of_Samarra</a>) before. Neat.
There’s a rejection sampling method named after Ziggurats that was named because of the shape of the ancient temples <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggurat_algorithm" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggurat_algorithm</a>
Religious structures commonly ascend upward in a pyramid/cone shape, toward a point. This seems to map to a hierarchy of human values, in order to symbolize the supreme value that should guide a person and society (e.g. a supreme all-powerful, life-giving consciousness).
Anybody else learn the word via this videogame?<p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggurat_(video_game)" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggurat_(video_game)</a>
> Most religions have attempted to build their sanctuaries on prominent heights to be visible to all the faithful.<p>Most? Can we even count religions?