Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[burningpet]

So a friend of mine argued that you cant make complex things in sketchup, in order to prove him wrong, and as a personal challenge and interest i started this project.

Tower-city of babylon

The project is to plan a fictional ancient city that served as a capital of commerce religion and inspiration, the main attributes should be beauty, the ability to defend the city from outside intruders and easily control its insides.

i have started with the basic outline of how it should look, really symetrical but that can change.
what i plan to do from now on:

a) finish building the walls, rooms and temple of the city. plan a method to deliver larger things to the upper levels of the city and build it.
b) add more vegetation, plan an irrigation system that would be visible and could also serve as beauty factor (waterfalls and flowing water is always nice).
c) add various detached buildings, such as market stands, sort of theather, racing arena etc..
d) add peoples and livestock.
e) engrave walls.

Everything is changeable and i would love for some feedback, discussion on whats the best way to place things.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The difference between blue and red is that the commerce area would be a trade area for more luxury things, such as carpets, silk, jewelery, vase, and that sort of stuff, while the blue is mainly food.

[Knight of Fools]

I'd suggest reading up on ancient Middle-Eastern architecture for inspiration to give it a little bit more of a cultural zing - More pillars, domes, and fancy archways.  There are also a few paintings of the Tower of Babel that you can draw inspiration from - But I know you're not making the tower of Babel, so you can find your own direction, there.  It just seems a little flat at the moment.

Also, make it more...  Tower-like.  From those pictures, you could probably call it the Big Temple of Zeus and no one would blink twice.  You are basing it off of a rather famous story, not to mention a big ancient civilization, so the expectations are fairly high.  Those pictures make a pretty big Temple of Zeus, but a rather small Tower of Babel.

Of course, I don't know anything about the limitations of Sketch-Up.  This is the first time I've heard of it.

[Jopax]

The city is located on the flatlands?
If not make it lean on a hill, like a stairway, getting taller and more luxurious as you go higher up the hill with a big ass palace on top

[thobal]

I could see living there.

[burningpet]

@Thobal - wait untill you see all the vegetation and water paths and the luxury places.

@jopax - nope, its on reletavely flatlands. i considered making something along the lines you suggested, but i fear that good looking landscapes are alot harder for me to make in sketchup.

@Knight of Fools - my main inspiration is this http://www.google.co.il/images?hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1I7GZAZ_en-GB&q=ziggurat&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi
The ziggurat type temple is what most historians believe was the tower of babel, if it even existed.
I am definitly going to add more pillars archways and cultural engravings, not domes tho. they were in the middle-east at the time, but not so common.

the temple reach 130 meters (including the underlying city), its 30 meter higher than what the tower of babel was said to be. you can see the little men for scale references (they are 1.80 height). however i did add another level to the temple itself to make it higher after your reply.

i started working on another level of the living area aswell as adding the public hamam (turkish bath) which i think wasent that popular at the time, but it looks nice.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[burningpet]

Finished with the basic construction of the living area, started abit on the goverment area and reworked the bath (elevated it and added stairs)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Next in line is building the temple itself.

[Askot Bokbondeler]

also, posting to follow progress
he he he, that's what i call a megaproject

[TolyK]

I don't think this is in df...right?
looks cool though.

[Askot Bokbondeler]

not until toady implements adobe bricks

[Knight of Fools]

Looks good so far.

I think the bath is a nice touch - Even if it weren't that popular back then, people would still use it.  I mean, who wouldn't want to bathe on a 100+ meter ledge?

[burningpet]

Quick update before bed. havent had much time to continue on it but i have started on the temple and duplicated the living area to another quarter (which wasent as easy i thought would be, basically rebuilt half of it again.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Neonivek]

Judging by how you seperated the sections of the city. You plan for there to be little seperation between religion and state.

Most likely they are similar or the same thing in this case.

Makes sense to me. Usually rulership was backed by divine right in ancient times.

[Askot Bokbondeler]

yes, in a magnitude much greater than the divine right of medieval kings, these rulers would either be the higher priests or even thought to be of divine nature themselves. egypt, is probably the best known case of a bronze age society, with the pharaoh being an obvious example of a god king

it'd be cool to try and flesh out a hypothetical society based on burningpet's work

[burningpet]

I have started working on the elite and king residence, still needs alot of work, but i am quite happy with the basic look.
its kinda inspired by machu pichu and thats got nothing related to mesopotamian cultures, but i think they merge quite well.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I am planning to finish one side of that area and then duplicate it and modify it to be less symetrical, but it will be for the most of the two sides.
theres alot of free space which i am thinking wether to make it the military area or the arenas.

@neonivek - i divided the state rulership to goverment which handle regular day to day empire running, such as rate of taxes, regulate prices etc. their offices are located at the base of the temple but they live at the elite complex, and to religion who keep the track of the stars (keeping track of time), practicing science and medicine and performing all the religious rituals. they are located at the higher levels of the temple where they live. the priests are considered higher in influence over the goverment but both are being ruled by the god-priest-king.

[Darthania]

Truly fantastic - keep up the great work!