Question: how many step pyramids are there in egypt

title: Step pyramid
text: Ziggurats were huge religious monuments built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau , having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels . There are 32 ziggurats known at , and near , Mesopotamia . Twenty - eight of them are in Iraq , and four of them are in Iran . Notable Ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah , Iraq , the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near Baghdad , Iraq , Chogha Zanbil in Khūzestān , Iran , the most recent to be discovered -- Sialk near Kashan , Iran and others . Ziggurats were built by the Sumerians , Babylonians , Elamites and Assyrians as monuments to local religions . The probable predecessors of the ziggurat were temples supported on raised platforms or terraces that date from the Ubaid period during the fourth millennium BC , and the latest date from the 6th century BC . The earliest ziggurats probably date from the latter part of the Early Dynastic Period of Sumer . Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular , oval , or square platform , the ziggurat was a pyramidal structure . Sun - baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside . The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance . Kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks . The number of tiers ranged from two to seven , with a shrine or temple at the summit . Access to the shrine was provided by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit . It was also called Hill of Heaven or Mountain of the gods .