The Esagil, in its broader sense as the entire complex of sanctuaries located around the temple of Marduk in the Eridu district of Babylon, is the subject of several texts which deal with the various gates of religious buildings. There are three known lists of Esagil gates.
The first, Gate List of Esagil A, is transmitted from a Late Babylonian tablet that most likely came from Babylon itself. The preserved text can be divided into three sections. §1 (ll. o 1-22) follows the usual two sub-column arrangement with the ceremonial Sumerian names of the gates on the left and an explanation in terms of location or function on the right. Mentioned here are: the cellas of Marduk and his spouse Zarpanītu together with their gates; the portals of the ziggurat Etemenanki; those of the Ekarzagina of Ea; those of the Erabriri of Madānu; and those of the Eturkalama of Ištar as Bēlet-Bābili. §2 (ll. 23a–r 30) enumerates the names of the gates of Nabû and Bēlet-Bābili, of the ziggurat Etemenanki, of the Ekarzagina of Ea, of the Garden of Apsû, of the Egalmah of Gula, and of the temple of Papsukkal. Some of these gates are already listed in §1, indicating that the two parts probably originated independently, as the organization of the text would also suggest. This section of the list presents, in fact, a different and opposite arrangement to that of §1: the ceremonial name and its explanation are not divided into separate sub-columns and they are reversed, with the equation between the two parts conveyed by the final MU-šú, i.e. "(is) its name". The same format is adopted in the list of city districts in Tintir 5, in the texts dealing with Names and Locations of cultic Daises, and in §3 of the present text. This last section (ll. r 31a–34), separated from the previous ones by a ruling, also changes in subject, concerned instead with four cultic daises to be located in the Esagil and dedicated to Asari (i.e. Marduk), to the king, to an owner whose name is unpreserved, and to Nissaba. In consideration of these inconsistencies it is plausible to regard the present text as a compilation derived from several different sources.
The second, Gate List of Esagil B, is preserved in two partial duplicates transmitted from respectively a Neo- or Late Babylonian tablet - probably from Babylon itself — and a Neo-Assyrian tablet — coming from Aššur and copied after a damaged original again from Babylon. Employing the two sub-column arrangement mentioned above and following the traditional order of temples adopted in the Gate List of Esagil Aand in Tintir 4, this list enumerates in §1 (ll. 1'–18') the gates of the cellas of Marduk and Zarpanītu in the Esagil, the portals inside and outside the Esagil, two gates of the ziggurat Etemenanki, those of the Ekarzagina of Ea and of the Erabriri of Madānu, and two gate-rooms in the Esagil. After a ruling, §2 (ll. 19'–24') lists more gates in the temple of Marduk, which according to George 1992 should be placed probably in its Eastern Annex.
The third, Gate List of Esagil C, is known from a small Late Babylonian fragment from Sippar. This list enumerates in two sub-columns more gates of the Esagil which were located around the main courtyard of the temple and around Ubšuukkinna, a part of the sanctuary precinct, probably located on its south side, as well as several daises.
The gates of the Esagil complex are mentioned in other parallel sources, such as the Esagil Tablet and the Neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions (e.g. Nebuchadnezzar II WBA and Neriglissar 03).
Further Reading
Giulia Lentini
Giulia Lentini, 'Gate Lists of Esagil', Babylonian Topographical Texts online (BTTo), BTTo, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2024 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/btto/Babylon/TextsrelatedtoTintir/GateListsofEsagil/]