The Great Ziggurat

The great Ziggurat towered above the squalor of the sun-baked city. Each level of the terraced pyramid was finished in glazed brick of a different color: gleaming violet at the base, then indigo, azure, green, yellow, fiery orange, and finally, scarlet.

— A chronicler of Athas

Purpose / Function

Nobody quite knows what, exactly, the purpose of the ziggurat is. King Kalak claims that it will somehow protect the city from the Dragon, but how it could possibly do that is anyone's guess. All that's really known for sure is that its construction been Kalak's singular, driving focus for at least the past twenty years.

Architecture

Easily one of the largest structures in the city the ziggurat is an enormous, seven terraced pyramid. Each layer is finished in vivid, glazed brick of a different color starting with violet at the base and progressing through indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and ending with red at the summit. From that summit an enormous staircase leads down toward the arena floor on one side and to the road leading to the caravan gate on the other. The stairway is flanked on either side by massive bastions covered in intricately carved and painted reliefs glorifying the king, the city, and their history.
Presumably the interior of the ziggurat is as intricate as the exterior. Unfortunately nobody knows what's in side as the slaves working on that section of the building were kept isolated from the rest and once their jobs were done nobody ever saw them again.

History

A little over twenty years ago Tyr as a powerful city. As the owner and operator of the only known operational iron mine in the region it was an economic force to be reckoned with even if it wasn't the most populous city or even the one with the most commanding armies.
As it doled out its iron in the form of weapons, luxury goods, and even just a raw resource to the various villages and city-states its nobility and merchant houses grew decadent and wealthy. All of that changed when Kalak decided to begin construction of the ziggurat. At first it seemed a simple project that would simply take time to complete, but Kalak became increasingly obsessed with its construction and began moving slaves from other industries to it in order to speed its completion. Before long he'd even shut down the iron mines, causing the city's economy to crash.
Currently as the ziggurat nears completion the city's in dire straights. Its slaves are starving, the free craftsmen receive meager rations in return for their services and even then only if their work directly contributes to the ziggurat's construction. Beyond that the cities that depend on Tyr's iron to supplement their economies are up in arms. The inevitable string of emissaries have made their way to King Kalak demanding the city resume its iron production with Urik and Raam notably predicting dire consequences if the city fails to do so. So far King Kalak has remained unmoved.

Alternative Names

Kalak's Ziggurat
Kalak's Folly

Owning Organization

The City-State of Tyr