1. The memory, lost over the centuries, that the ancient Sumerian ziggurats were metallic structures was preserved in a few texts. In his book Architecture, Mysticism and Myth, in which he tells of the Borsippa ziggurat restored in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, William Lethaby translates the inscription that survives on it in this way:
"I restored and brought to perfection the wonder of Borsippa, the temple of the seven spheres of the world. I erected it in brick and covered it with copper."