The construction of the most famous Egyptian structures ever, the pyramids, began around 2686 B.C. and ended around 2498 B.C. Temples built of stone were found in the Middle Kingdom around 2133-1786 B.C. The forms of these stone structures seem to have been influenced by the Egyptian domestic architecture. Houses were built of mud-brick walls with columns made from bundles of reeds tied together. The walls of buildings were mostly battered, and the columns were short in proportion to their diameter. The column capitals were carved to represent flowers or buds, palm leaves, and papyrus heads.
Stone and timber were rare in the plains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. So, Mesopotamian Architecture was mostly based on the use of clay bricks with an outer layer of colored, glazed bricks. Farther up the Mesopotamian River in Assyria, stone was available, but it was used primarily as a wall covering that was decorated with sculpture and inscriptions from the knowledge of the Assyrian history. The architecture of the Babylonians (1900-1550 B.C.) and the Assyrians (1100-612 B.C.) was based on very large brick platforms raised above the plain and often further terraced to give the ziggurat form. The ancient Persian Empire (538-333 B.C.) adopted these features and supplemented them with the extensive use of columns, as in the palaces at Persepolis from 518- 460 B.C.
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