As part of an international team of planners, ZRS Ingenieure was commissioned by the World Monument Fund (WMF) to conduct the engineering construction survey of the Temple of the Mother Goddess Ninmakh in Babylon. The temple is located east of the Processional Way near the Ishtar Gate in Babylon. The main construction phase of the original temple was mainly during Nebuchadnezzar’s (604-562 BC) time.
The temple covers a floor area of 1750 m² and was built in earth block construction. The walls, up to 3 m thick, were masoned with earthern mortar. In the original preserved wall segments layers of asphalt mortar can be found in the bearing joints.
The findings obtained during the building survey are causally mainly due to improper reconstruction of the temple in the 1970s and 1980s. Further significant damage to the building occurred in the area of the excavation carried out by Robert Koldewey in the 1900s to a depth of up to 9 m in the Cella. Partial collapses occurred here in the 2010s due to foundation settlement.
ZRS Ingenieure will use the findings and the results of the sample analyses to work out the measures necessary from an engineering point of view in the context of further conservation.
