BABYLON Babylon can be translated to be "the Gate of Gods". This ancient city is situated 90 kilometers to the south of Baghdad.

This Babylon city is a birth place of 2 major civilizations. Babylon an ancient city situated on the left bank of the Euphrates, about 70 miles south of Baghdad. "Babylon" is the Greek form of Babel or Babili, "the gate of the god" (sometimes incorrectly written "of the gods"), which again is the Semitic translation of the original Sumerian name Kadimirra.

The god was probably Merodach or Marduk, the divine patron of the city. In an inscription of the Kassite conqueror Gaddas the name appears as Ba-balam, as if from the Assyrian babalu, "to bring"; another foreign folk etymology is found in Genesis 11:9, from balbal, "to confound." A second name of the city, which perhaps originally denoted a separate village or quarter, was Su-anna, and in later inscriptions it is often represented ideographically by E-ki, the pronunciation and meaning of which are uncertain. One of its oldest names, however, was Din-tir, of which the poets were especially fond; Din-tir signifies in Sumerian "the life of the forest," though a native lexicon translates it "seat of life." Uru-azagga, "the holy city," was also a title sometimes applied to Babylon as to other cities in Babylonia. Ka-dimirra, the Semitic Bab-ili, probably denoted at first E-Saggila, "the house of the lofty head," the temple dedicated to

Bel-Merodach, along with its immediate surroundings. Like the other great sanctuaries of Babylonia the temple had been founded in pre-Semitic times, and the future Babylon grew up around it. Since Merodach was the son of Ea, the culture god of Eridu near Ur on the Persian Gulf, it is possible that Babylon was a colony of Eridu. Adjoining Babylon was a town called Borsippa. The earliest mention of Babylon is in a dated tablet of the reign of Sargon of Akkad (2800 BC), who is stated to have built sanctuaries there to Anunit and Ae (or Ea). H. Winckler may be right in restoring a mutilated passage in the annals of this king so as to make it mean that Babylon owed its name to Sargon, who made it the capital of his empire. If so, it fell back afterwards into the position of a mere provincial town and remained so for centuries, until it became the capital of "the first dynasty of Babylon" and then of Hammurabi's empire (2250 BC). From this time onward it continued to be the capital of Babylonia and the holy city of western Asia. The claim to supremacy in western Asia, however real in fact, was not admitted de jure until the claimant had "taken the hands" of Bel-Merodach at Babylon and thereby been accepted as his adopted son and the inheritor of the old Babylonian empire. It was this which made Tiglath-Pileser III and other Assyrian kings so anxious to possess themselves of Babylon and so to legitimize their power. Sennacherib alone seems to have failed in securing the support of the Babylonian priesthood; at all events he never underwent the ceremony, and Babylonia throughout his reign was in a constant state of revolt which was finally suppressed only by the complete destruction of the capital. In 689 BC its walls, temples and palaces were razed to the ground and the rubbish thrown into the Arakhtu, the canal which bordered the earlier Babylon on the south. This act shocked the religious conscience of Mesopotamia; the subsequent murder of Sennacherib was held to be an expiation of it, and his successor Esarhaddon hastened to rebuild the old city, to receive there his crown, and make it his residence during part of the year. On his death Babylonia was left to his elder son Shamash-shumukin, who eventually headed a revolt against his brother Assur-bani-pal of Assyria. Once more Babylon was besieged by the Assyrians and starved into surrender. Assur-bani-pal (or Assurbanipal) purified the city and celebrated a "service of reconciliation," but did not venture to "take the hands" of Bel. In the subsequent overthrow of the Assyrian empire the Babylonians saw another example of divine vengeance. With the recovery of Babylonian independence under Nabopolassar a new era of architectural activity set in, and his son Nebuchadnezzar made Babylon

one of the wonders of the ancient world. It surrendered without a struggle to Cyrus, but two sieges in the reign of Darius Hystaspis, and one in the reign of Xerxes, brought about the destruction of the defences, while the monotheistic rule of Persia allowed the temples to fall into decay. Indeed part of the temple of E-Saggila, which like other ancient temples served as a fortress, was intentionally pulled down by Xerxes after his capture of the city. Alexander died (or was murdered) in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar, which must therefore have been still standing, and cuneiform texts show that, even under the Seleucids, E-Saggila was not wholly a ruin. The foundation of Seleucia in its neighbourhood, however, drew away the population of the old city and hastened its material decay. A tablet dated 275 BC states that on the 12th of Nisan the inhabitants of Babylon were transported to the new town, where a palace was built as well as a temple to which the ancient name of E-Saggila was given. With this event the history of Babylon comes practically to an end, though more than a century later we find sacrifices being still performed in its old sanctuary. Our knowledge of its topography is derived from the classical writers, the inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar, and the excavations of the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft, which were begun in 1899. The topography is necessarily that of the Babylon of Nebuchadrezzar; the older Babylon which was destroyed by Sennacherib having left few, if any, traces behind. Most of the existing remains lie on the east bank of the Euphrates, the principal being three vast mounds, the Babil to the north, the Qasr or "Palace" (also known as the Mujelliba) in the centre, and the Ishgn "Amran ibn" All, with the outlying spur of the Jumjuma, to the south. Eastward of these come the Ishgn el-Aswad or "Black Mound" and three lines of rampart, one of which encloses the Babil mound on the N. and E. sides, while a third forms a triangle with the S.E. angle of the other two. W. of the Euphrates are other ramparts and the remains of the ancient Borsippa. We learn from Herodotus and Ctesias that the city was built on both sides of the river in the form of a square, and enclosed within a double row of lofty walls to which Ctesias adds a third. Ctesias makes the outermost wall 360 stades (42 m.) in circumference, while according to Herodotus it measured 480 stades (56 m.), which would include an area of about 200 sq. m. The estimate of Ctesias is essentially the same as that of Q. Curtius (v. I. 26), 368 stades, and Clitarchus (ap. Diod. Sic. ii. 7), 365 stades;

Strabo (xvi. 1. 5) makes it 385 stades. But even the estimate of Ctesias, assuming the stade to be its usual length, would imply an area of about 100 sq. m.

The city of Babylon whose ruins differ from those of earlier cities largely because of the use of burnt brick, was rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar II (605-563BC) for it had been thoroughly destroyed by Sennacherib (698BC)A heavily fortified inner and outer part ,the inner town was approximately square in plan ,of about 1300m(4350ft)sides ,containing the principal buildings,the Euphrates river forming the west side. The few main streets intersected starkly at right angles, terminating in tower framed bronze gates where they met the walls. Dwellings, business houses, temples, chapels and shrines jostled in lively disorder tiered between the main streets.

On the river front the principal sites where situated and behind them ran a grand processional way, its vista closed on the north by the Ishtar Gate glowing in colored glazed brick, patterned with yellow and white bulls and dragons in relief upon the blue ground.

The Ishtar Gate was the triumphant entry-way into the city of Babylon. It was dedicated to Ishtar, the goddess of carnal love.

Hereabouts there were palace citadels connected with Nebuchadnezzars great palace complex on the water side was that marvel of the ancient world, the Hanging Gardens, 275meters by 18metersoverall; among its maze of rooms was a vast throne room.52m by 17m, its long faade decorated with polychrome glazed bricks. The central sites on the river front were occupied by the chief temple of the god of the city, Marduk, and to the north of it, the expansive precinct where rose the associated ziggurat, the Tower of Babel.

Ancient Babylon (Aerial Views) Babylon, Iraq

Babylon - Photo by Daniel O'Connell Gunnery Sergeant, USMC

Walls of King Nebuchadnezzar's Palace "Procession Street" Babylon, Iraq

The celebrated ziggurat appears to have been one combining the triple stairway approach and massive lower tier customary in early Mesopotamia, with upper stages arranged spirally according to Assyrian practice. The plan was square of 90m sides and there were seven stages in all, the summit temple being faces with blue glazed bricks.

Geography and Landscape The dynamics of Mesopotamian history only make sense in view of the ecological and geographical conditions of the area. As the Greek name suggests, the lateral boundaries of the land known as Mesopotamia land between rivers- more or less coincide with the main rivers ,the western

Euphrates and the eastern Tigris .The extensive marshland around the confluence of the rivers into the Persian Gulf forms a natural southern Border. The northern frontier of greater Mesopotamia is constituted by the ridge of mountains which extends all along the south of the Anatolian plateau. Within this area there are two climatic zones: the northern part; know as the Assyria and Babylonia in the south .The main difference between them is the annual rainfall .The Mountains to the north and east of Assyria ensure precipitation above the minimum of 200-300 mm per year, the amount necessary for a rain-fed agriculture. The rivers are wide apart and below the ranges of the Jebel Sinjar extend a semi-arid plateau known as the island which could be utilized for seasonal herding of sheep and goats but was unsuitable for permanent settlements. This meant that the region was naturally divided between a western part, dominated by the Euphrates and its tributaries and the eastern part along the Tigris and its side arms from the mountains on the edge of the Iranian plateau . Culturally the Euphrates side was more closely associated with Greater Syria and oriented towards the Mediterranean, while the east looked towards Anatolia and Iran The great Assyrian cities were all located in the east. In the south rainfall is minimal due to the greater distance from any mountain ranges and the close proximity of the western desert .While most of the land in Assyria is formed by limestone and alluvial deposits, there is comparatively little stone in Babylonia where the low gradient of rivers contributed to the thick deposit of alluvial sediment .Agricultural exploitation was possible only through irrigation but the alluvial soil was fertile enough to guarantee abundant and multiple crops ,mainly barley and emmer wheat, this potential for surplus of grain provided one of the most important incentives for population growth in the south. The stone less earth also had an advantage that it was relatively easy to dig, which allowed for the construction of canals and subsidiary waterways Thus the alluvial plains become a tabula rasa to be cultivated and populated at will. Villages and cities grew up along the rivers as well as between them following the course of man made or natural side arms and canals which assured a year round supply of water and provided the main means of communication .The climate with its hot summers was also suitable for intensive date palm cultivation, a highly important source of high energy food and timber. The country was less suited to herding, but owing to the economic importance attached to wool and the need of meat and dairy products, sheep, goats, pigs and cattle were kept on fallow land and on the agricultural periphery.

Geographically the southern plains were more isolated then Upper Mesopotamia. Along the Eastern tributaries of the Karkeh and the Karun contact with the Iranian lowlands was possible. Indeed the region known as the Susiana had a shared a common cultural development with lower Mesopotamia since at least the sixth millennium. The western desert only proved less of a barrier once the camel had been domesticated in the late second millennium. However because the southern alluvial plains were lacking in resources such as timber, minerals and stone there was a strong incentive for trade. From the sixth millennium onwards such items were obtained from eastern Syria,Anatolia and the Iranian highlands

The Tigris is the eastern member of the pair of great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of Anatolia through Iraq. Babylonian geographical and cosmic notions When we look at an ancient culture like that of Mesopotamia we import our contemporary vision and geographical parameters to locate it within a temporal and spatial grid which informs the modern view of time, the present knowledge of the world. Anthropologists maintain that the making and reading of maps is a universal human activity and quite independent of the use of writing .It appears that the Babylonian scholars were more concerned with the names of places rather than their geographical relationship to each other. The geographical data are arranged in a system which proceeds from the most fundamental constituent, the arable field, to

the most distant, the stars of heaven. Fields are followed by cities, the basic political and social unit in Mesopotamia. The sequence of cities reflects traditional prestige rather then historical importance. Within the city section we find buildings and institutions associated with urban centers, such as palaces, temples and taverns. Thereafter the sequence varies. The mountains regions of Mesopotamia such as the Zagros range an the foothills of Assyria were called after the people who inhabitant these regions, while more distant ones were associated with their main produce hence cedar mountains, the copper mountains, the silver mountains and so on. The names of the regions inhabited by tribally organized groups occur only in some lists and preserve obsolete as well as currant names but there is no section as such which would deal with foreign lands. While we can see that there is a genre specific logic to the lists ,with its graphic and oral referents ,they are nevertheless convey an image of how geographical space was conceived .It clearly reflects the perspective of an agrarian and urbanized society within the alluvial plains of Mesopotamian, a self contained world centered on its cities and river ways. Even the late Babylonian examples, written at a time when Babylonia was a part of a multi national empire .preserve as much older and to some extent anachronistic content based on scribal transmission. They maintain the geographical framework of the old, more parochial world of the third millennium with its city states and ancient canals.

The Babylonian cosmic geography projects the experience of inhabiting the alluvial plains into a universal scheme; the flatness of the earth where mountains are viewed as distant bulwarks retaining the boundaries of the world, the twin rivers and ground water as the main sources of sweet water, a primordial substance like a sea which rings the earth an the vault of heaven suspended like a bright kettle above the earth. The cities especially Babylon and Nippur were not the result of human ingenuity but form part of the cosmic plan as primary links between heaven and earth. While the architectural and field plans as well as the city maps reflect a built and geographical reality with considerable accuracy in order to fulfill a practical purpose such as repairs and surveys, there is also a rather different map accompanied by a written commentary known as --The Babylonian Map of the world-

Babylonian history is embedded within a much longer sequence of Mesopotamia history .Modern scholarly chronologies differentiate a prehistorically period from 6000-4000 BC ,subdivided into epochs named after archaeologically significant locations ,from a historical period from 4000 BC to the beginning of the Christians era or commonly ,the death of Alexander in 322 BC Which is defined by a succession of dynasties? The chronological framework of Babylonian history ,based as we have seen on the indigenous lists of succeeding dynasties ,comprises the following scheme; The first Dynasty of Babylon from 1800-1600 The Kassie Dynasty 1600-1155 The second Dynasty 1155-1027 The short lived Second Dynasty of Sealand 1026-1006 The BAZI Dynasty 1005-986 The so-called Dynasty of E 976-647 The Chaldean Dynasty 626-539 Since the occupation of BABYLONIA by the Persian empire of the Achaemenids was not seen to constitute a major break with the religious and socipolitical organaizations of the country,the official end of Mesopotamian history has been taken to coincide with Alexanders defeat of Darius at Isso 333 which led to the incorporation of the East into a Hellinic world dominated in western Asia by the Dynasty of Selucids

The Karun (also Karoun) is Iran's most effluent, and the only navigable, river. It is 450 miles (720 km) long. It rises in the Zard Kuh mountains of the Bakhtiyari/Bakhtiari district in the Zagros range, receiving many tributaries, such as the Diz and the Kuhrang, before passing through the capital of the Khuzistan/Khuzestan province of Iran, the city of Ahvaz. The Karun continues toward the Persian Gulf, forking into two primary branches on its delta: the Bahmanshir and the Haffar that joins the Shatt al-Arab (Arvand River in Persian), emptying into the Gulf. The important Island of Abadan is located between these two branches of the Karun. The port city of Khorramshahr is divided from the Island of Abadan by the Haffar branch.

The History of Plumbing Babylonia

the ancient traveler on foot or camel back, the massive walled city of Babylon and its network of canals and verdant crop lands must have loomed like a mirage in the simmering heat of the Near East sun. Adding to a disbelieving eye was a 300-ft. high ziggurat or temple tower in the city's center, surrounded on all sides by lush gardens and date palm trees that swayed upon the terraced city. Located some 50 miles south of Baghdad in what is now Iraq, the flat land today is broken only by a series of desolate mounds and occasional patches of green cultivation and small villages. But beneath these mounds or "tells" are shattered remnants of past civilizations, crumbled foundations of clay cities literally layered one on top of the other. What developed in this area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers from about 6000-3000 B.C. were the beginnings of western civilization. Here the warrior peoples of Assyria reigned with a fearsome hand over Sumerian and Babylonian culture. In their wake were produced systems of writing and communication, literature, a codified set of laws, a calendar and system for ascertaining time. Wheeled vehicles became common - and water management evolved into irrigation dams, drains and basins, and personal bathrooms of their era's rich and famous.

To

In existence since 2900) B.C., the city of Babylon, under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 B.C.), had spread on both sides of the Euphrates River. It covered 500 acres. Many of the houses were three stories high whose flat roofs were buttressed with timbers packed with mud. For the poor who couldn't afford the luxury of wood, there were circular mud-brick huts, supported by a center post, the walls packed with reeds and mud. Budding plumbers worked their ingenuity with the only available resource in unlimited supply-clay mixed with finely chopped straw. Copper was known to some extent from the beginning, while bronze was introduced about 2500 B.C. from outlying trade routes; sometimes it was alloyed with tin, sometimes with antimony. Some working in lead (anakum) was developing too at this time, as natives began to rivet, solder, hammer and anneal. Bitumen was especially important to the Mesopotamians. Produced in a liquid and a solid form, it corresponded to tar and pitch, essential for construction and for stopgap plugs in the irrigation systems. Water was stored in large pottery jars, hand-carried from the river by household slaves. The jars were unglazed, which was an advantage in the intensely hot climate. Being slightly porous, the jars allowed slight evaporation that kept the water cool. Similar jars, often lined with a coating of bitumen, held barley, wheat and oil. Most streets of Babylon ran parallel or at right angles to the river. They were very narrow, from four and a half feet to 20 feet, and unpaved. They not only provided access to the houses, but served as depositories of rubbish, excrement and filth. Periodically the debris was covered with a layer of clay. In this fashion, as the level of the streets continually rose with the debris, it became necessary to build stairs to go down into the house until the houses were rebuilt at the new level. These Old Houses: The rich households and the palaces had separate bath rooms; that is, rooms in which to "bathe" or refresh oneself with water or anointing of oil. The ordinary folk used the banks of the canals or the cisterns in the courtyards. Typically a bathroom of the well-to-do was a good-sized room, about 15 feet square, and built at the south end of the house. The lower parts of the wall were lined with baked brick as was the floor. However, the floor was overlaid with a bitumen composition and powdered limestone. It sloped to the center of the room where the water drained off in small runnels by baked and glazed earthenware tiles. Although clay tubs were supposedly reported 200 years earlier in the reign of Sargon the Great, an Assyrian king (721705 B. C.), most sources agree that there were no bathtubs during this period of history, during the

reign of King Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar's "bath" in all actuality was a shower, as slaves poured water over him as he washed with a soap made of ashes of certain plants and fats. Due to the texture of the concoction, his "shower" was probably like a detergent rinse. There is some confusion over reports of privies at this period in history. Most likely a privy did develop which consisted of a hole in the floor with a cesspool underneath (a practice carried forward to modern times). But others report a more elaborate arrangement of six "toilets" in the palace of Sargon the Great. Those toilets had high seats which brought the latrine off the floor in the western style.

Here, archaeologists say they have found connections to drains which discharged into a main sewer. According to their findings, the sewer was 3.28 feet high, and 16 feet long, vaulted over with baked bricks. It ran alongside the outer wall of the palace, beneath a pavement. The sewer sloped downward to allow the sewage to be washed down. Other bathrooms which could not be connected with the sewer system had individual cesspools.
King Nebuchadnezzar's Palace Throne Room

Nebuchadnezzar's palace was built around five courtyards and included his private quarters and his harems. Two rooms behind the throne room contained circular wells. The space between the walls and the wells down to the water level were firmly packed with mud, asphalt and broken brick. The king's well had three shafts close together, two were oblong, the center one square. Above the well was a wheel and an endless chain with pottery buckets attached, going up one oblong shaft and down the other. The center shaft was used as an inspection pit so a man could clear out the well or repairs the machinery. The same type of well is still used

today in the area, propelled by animals. In those ancient times, slaves were the primary source of power.
Ancient Babylon

(Aerial View Babylon, Iraq

It is thought that men who sought an audience with their ruler performed a kind of ritual washing before entering his sacred presence. Drains have been found beneath the hard-tamped floor of an anteroom. They were made from pots whose bottoms had been knocked out, set against a row of bricks that had been set on edge to form the rim of a basin. Archaeologists have found traces of still other drains, of a more grisly nature in those days when temple services called for the sacrifice of live animals and the liberal pouring of wine and beer for the gods. At Tell Asmar a room was uncovered with two catch basins buried in the pavement. One was formed by a bottomless pot, standing upright, and perforated with rows of holes. Nearby was a smaller pot in which slanted a drain pipe of baked clay protected by terra cotta slabs. It is supposed the drains were made to absorb the sticky substances spilled in front of the god's statue, which otherwise would have formed puddles on the ground. That the fluids should disappear underground was probably a ritual requirement as well. Hanging Gardens: Nebuchadnezzar boasted of his magnificent shrine to his city god Marduk, contained in the small temple he built on the summit of the ziggurat. He plated the gypsum walls and cedar roof of the building with gold, embellished with alabaster, lapin lazuli and precious stones. The altar was solid gold as were the throne, footstool and statue of the god. Archaeologists figure the room once contained about 18.5 tons of gold. The king called the great seven storied temple, Etemananki, "House of the Platform of Heaven & Earth." It had been started centuries before, its bricks crumbled, destroyed, rebuilt and rebuilt again so it soared 300 feet above the flat plain. (Babylonia was the trade center of the Near East whose population contained captured slaves and peoples from all parts

of the conquered lands. The tower is thought to be the source of the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel.) But what had his early plumbers scrambling around was his construction of the "Hanging Gardens of Babylon," destined to become one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. It is said the King built the gardens for his queen to remind her of the mountains and trees of her Median homeland. (One archaeologist joked that it was probably the world's first roof garden!) Walls of King
Nebuchadnezzar's Pala"Procession Street"

Babylon, Iraq

The city of Babylon had been sacked and leveled 100 years earlier by the Assyrian King Sennacherib. When Nebuchadnezzar became the head of the new Babylonian empire, he restored the beauty of the city, and then some. The Hanging Gardens were built on a foundation of arched vaults, and rose to 75 feet. They were waterproofed with bitumen, baked brick and lead to keep the under vaults dry. He covered the terraced structure with dirt deep enough to support large trees and irrigation machines to keep them watered. Traces of wells have been discovered, which suggest that the wheel of buckets technique or Doria was used here to raise the water to the highest point of the terrace.

King Nebuchadnezzar's Palace Throne Room

The terraced construction, itself elevated by situating the gardens on the summit of a small hill, made the tops of the trees visible above the walls from a considerable distance. Undoubtedly it helped to perpetuate an illusive sense of wonder over such "hanging" gardens. The botanical gardens blossomed with fragrant flowers and decoration set among the irrigation ditches. Fruit trees accentuated the rectangular areas of cultivation, themselves overshadowed by palm trees. Water cascaded down from a reservoir-lake over the vegetation beneath. Troughs and channels were built into the irrigation system, and lined with non-rusting metals such as lead and bronze. No iron was found in the system, leaving unclear whether iron was known to the Babylonians apart from what they may have found in meteorites. The terraces contained an extremely advanced system of internal drainage, which ensured that all moisture was led off into large sewers of baked brick. The sewers were roofed with slightly oval or pointed vaulting. They consisted of a series of slanting courses each resting on the one below, compensating for the lack of wood or scaffolding in the design. Irrigation the Key: The civilization of Mesopotamia existed for 26 centuries. It was in a position to command by trade or plunder all the resources of the ancient world provided it could keep the vast flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates under strict control.

From their earliest writings, the Sumerians recounted the story of their most terrible flood, estimated by historians about 8000 B.C. (The tale perpetuates in the Biblical story of Noah and the Great Flood.) As irrigation was so vital to the empire, a whole network of canals was formed and special officials appointed to supervise them. They made sure the canals were clear of rushes and water weeds, the course ways dredged of silt, and the banks consolidated against floods. King Hammurabi who belonged to the first dynasty of Babylonia lived around 1760 B.C. He personally directed provincial governors to dig and dredge the canals on a continuous basis. He also set in motion the world's first compilation of common laws, including special provision to prevent neglect of those canals. Another clause deals with construction and should strike terror in the heart of unethical contractors. In Hammurabi's code of fair and equitable justice, woe to the builder whose house falls and kills someone.The builder would be sentenced to death too.) The remains of the earliest aqueduct on record have been pinpointed to the works of the Assyrian king and master builder, Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.), who ruled with "a heart of wrath." He unleashed the power of water as a weapon to flood and destroy the burnt and vanquished city of Babylon. In peacetime, he harnessed it to build his own capital, Ninevah, and his palace at Khorsbad. He developed a 10 mile long canal in three stages, including 18 fresh water courses from the mountains, two dams and water diversion and a chain of canals. Water ran along a strengthened conduit of hardened earth, waterproofed with bitumen, and lined with flagstones. The aqueduct spanned the valleys on arches, and was fed by a number of small streams to ensure a proper supply to the town. There is practically no rainfall in Mesopotamia. But if the ground is sufficiently moistened, acres of virtual desert can be covered with vegetation and are amazingly fertile. From the earliest times, the rulers of Mesopotamia regarded it as both a duty and act of piety to improve the canal system. In fact, the digging of a canal was regarded equally in importance to a ruler as a victory in war. Both kinds of enterprises were inscribed on clay tablets as boasts of their accomplishments. Ancient Mesopotamia declined under a line of weak kings who followed Nebuchadnezzar. The city of Babylon in 539 fell into the hands of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire. (The late Shah of Iran claimed himself to be the last ruling descendent.) The Persian influence was

itself overcome by the invasion by Alexander the Great in the 4th Century B.C., and later rampages of Arabian nomadic hordes. As the land became sparsely populated, attention to the canals waned. The canals gradually silted up. And the land returned to desert. from : Plumbing and Mechanical, July 1989

Nebuchadnezzar's Pala"Procession Street"

Babylon, Iraq

Mesopotamia in the third Millennium The most astonishing development of the late fourth millennium was the emergence of the first urban conglomeration, the city of Uruk in the southern plains of Mesopotamia. Uruk was the nexus of a massive network of exchange and distribution which included the Susiana as well as north-west Iran, Upper Mesopotamia and eastern Syria, right up to the mountain of Anatolia. Towns with identical architectural installations large rectangular buildings and store houses and material culture have been found in all these regions ands testify a remarkable degree of cultural homogeneity The King Hammurabi is the most famous king of the Babylonian kingdom.The whole kingdom flourished under his rule.His son Nebuchadnezzar is the one who built the Hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of world. Nebuchadnezzar ruled the country for 43 years from 605 BC. He constructed impressive array of temples, palaces and streets. It is being told that he built this garden to please his wife, Amyitis. Amyitis, daughter of the king Medes seems to have had a passion for mountainous surroundings. There are some other accounts which say that

this wonder of the world was actually built by the Assyrian Queen Semiramis. The ancient accounts of these hanging gardens (one of the Seven Wonders of the World) describes the structure to be a stairs like one. The Greek geographer Strabo, describes it as, "the garden consists of vaulted terraces raised one above another, and resting upon cube-shaped pillars. These are hollow and filled with earth to allow trees of the largest size to be planted. The pillars, the vaults, and terraces are constructed of baked brick and asphalt." The irrigation system was supposedly the complex part built on these gardens. This region had very scarce rains. Slaves were used to push the water upwards using some ancient method of irrigation. Of course there must be some exploitation of slave labor to maintain one among the Seven Wonders of the World. The gardens did not really hang on the roof using cables or ropes. But this name from the sense that it was built on the roof top. Some accounts state that the gardens are 400 by 400 feet and 80 feet high. Babylon was an ancient city in Mesopotamia (modern Al Hillah, Iraq), the ruins of which can be found in present-day Babil Province, about 50 miles (80 km) south of Baghdad. The form Babylon is the Greek variant of Akkadian Babilu (bb-il, meaning "Gateway of the god(s)", translating Sumerian KA2.DINGIR.RA). It was the "holy city" of Babylonia from around 2300 BC, and the seat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 612 BC. In the Old Testament, the name appears as ( Babel), interpreted by Genesis 11:9 to mean "confusion", from the verb balal, "to confuse". The earliest mention of Babylon is in a dated tablet of the reign of Sargon of Akkad (24th century BC short chr.). Over the years, its power and population waned. From around the 20th century BC, it was occupied by Amorites (nomadic Semitic tribes), flooding southern Mesopotamia from the west. The First Babylonian Dynasty was established by Sumu-abum, but the city-state controlled little surrounding territory until it became the capital of Hammurabi's empire. Hammurabi is known for codifying the laws of Babylonia, that were to have a profound influence on the region. (ca. 18th century BC). From that time onward, it continued to be the capital of Babylonia, although during the 440 years of domination by the Kassites (15951185 BC), the city was renamed "Karanduniash". The city itself was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods. Babylon grew in extent and grandeur over time, but gradually became subject to the rule of Assyria.It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from 1770 to 1670 BC, and

again between c. 612 and 320 BC. It was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000 During the reign of Sennacherib of Assyria, Babylonia was in a constant state of revolt, led by Mushezib-Marduk, and suppressed only by the complete destruction of the city of Babylon. In 689 BC, its walls, temples and palaces were razed to the ground, and the rubble was thrown into the Arakhtu, the canal bordering the earlier Babylon on the south. This act shocked the religious conscience of Mesopotamia; the subsequent murder of Sennacherib was held to be in expiation of it, and his successor Esarhaddon hastened to rebuild the old city, to receive there his crown, and make it his residence during part of the year. On his death, Babylonia was left to be governed by his elder son Shamash-shum-ukin, who eventually headed a revolt in 652 BC against his brother in Nineveh, Assurbanipal.The city of Babylon was reputedly surrounded by a wall 300 feet (91 m) high, 80 feet (24 m) wide, and 60 miles (97 km) in circumference. The wall was also buried 35 feet (10.7 m) into the soil in order to prevent enemies from burrowing into the city limits.

Brickwork in King Nebuchadnezzar's Palace

Babylon, Iraq

Once again, Babylon was besieged by the Assyrians and starved into surrender. Assurbanipal purified the city and celebrated a "service of reconciliation", but did not venture to "take the hands" of Bel. In the subsequent overthrow of the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonians saw another example of divine vengeance.

Under Nabopolassar, Babylon threw off the Assyrian rule in 626 BC, and became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Plan of the City of Babylon 500 B.C.

Babylon, Iraq

With the recovery of Babylonian independence, a new era of architectural activity ensued, and his son Nebuchadnezzar II (605 BC562 BC) made Babylon into one of the wonders of the ancient world. Nebuchadnezzar ordered the complete reconstruction of the imperial grounds, including rebuilding the Etemenanki ziggurat and the construction of the Ishtar Gate the most spectacular of eight gates that ringed the perimeter of Babylon. The Ishtar Gate survives today in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Nebuchadnezzar is also credited with the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world), said to have been built for his homesick wife Amyitis. Whether the gardens did exist is a matter of dispute. Although excavations by German archaeologist Robert Koldewey are thought to reveal its foundations, many historians disagree about the location, and some believe it may have been confused with gardens in Nineveh.

Babylon under Persia In 539 BC the Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great, king of Persia. It is said that Cyrus walked through the gates of Babylon without encountering any resistance. He later issued a decree permitting the

exiled Jews to return to their own land, and allowed their temple to be rebuilt. Under Cyrus and the subsequent Persian king Darius I, Babylon became the capital city of the 9th Satrapy (Babylonia in the south and Athura in the north), as well a centre of learning and scientific advancement. In Achaemenid Persia, the ancient Babylonian arts of astronomy and mathematics were revitalised and flourished, and Babylonian scholars completed maps of constellations. The city was the administrative capital of the Persian Empire, the preeminent power of the then known world, and it played a vital part in the history of that region for over two centuries. Many important archaeological discoveries have been made that can provide a better understanding of that era[2][3]. The early Persian kings had attempted to maintain the religious ceremonies of Marduk, but by the reign of Darius III, over-taxation and the strains of numerous wars led to a deterioration of Babylon's main shrines and canals, and the disintegration of the surrounding region. Despite three attempts at rebellion in 522 BC, 521 BC, and 482 BC, the land and city of Babylon remained solidly under Persian rule for two centuries, until Alexander the Great's entrance in 331 BC. Hellenistic Period In 331 BC, Darius III was defeated by the forces of the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great at the Battle of Gaugamela, and in October, Babylon fell to the young conqueror. A native account of this invasion notes a ruling by Alexander not to enter the homes of its inhabitants. Under Alexander, Babylon again flourished as a centre of learning and commerce. But following Alexander's mysterious death in 323 BC in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, his empire was divided amongst his generals, and decades of fighting soon began, with Babylon once again caught in the middle.

Sumerian streets and markets were busy with life-sustaining trade.

The constant turmoil virtually emptied the city of Babylon. A tablet dated 275 BC states that the inhabitants of Babylon were transported to Seleucia, where a palace was built, as well as a temple given the ancient name of E-Saggila. With this deportation, the history of Babylon comes practically to an end, though more than a century later, it was found that

sacrifices were still performed in its old sanctuary. By 141 BC, when the Parthian Empire took over the region, Babylon was in complete desolation and obscurity. Archaeology of Babylon Historical knowledge of Babylon's topography is derived from classical writers, the inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar, and several excavations, including those of the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft begun in 1899. The layout is that of the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar; the older Babylon destroyed by Sennacherib having left few, if any, traces behind.

US Marines in front of the rebuilt ruins of Babylon (2003) Most of the existing remains lie on the east bank of the Euphrates, the principal ones being three vast mounds: the Babil to the north, the Qasr or "Palace" (also known as the Mujelliba) in the centre, and the Ishgn "Amran ibn" All, with the outlying spur of the Jumjuma, to the south. East of these come the Ishgn el-Aswad or "Black Mound" and three lines of rampart, one of which encloses the Babil mound on the N. and E. sides, while a third forms a triangle with the S.E. angle of the other two. West of the Euphrates are other ramparts, and the remains of the ancient Borsippa. We learn from Herodotus and Ctesias that the city was built on both sides of the river in the form of a square, and was enclosed within a double row of lofty walls, or a triple row according to Ctesias. Ctesias describes the outermost wall as 360 stades (42 miles/68 km) in circumference, while according to Herodotus it measured 480 stades (56 miles/90 km), which would include an area of about 520 km (approx. 200 square miles). The estimate of Ctesias is essentially the same as that of Q. Curtius (v. I. 26) -- 368 stades -- and Cleitarchus (ap. Diod. Sic. ii. 7) -- 365 stades; Strabo (xvi. 1. 5) makes it 385 stades. But even the estimate of Ctesias, assuming the stade to be its usual length, would imply an area of about 260 km (100 square miles). According to Herodotus, the width of the walls was 24 m (80 ft).

In 1985, Saddam Hussein started rebuilding the city on top of the old ruins, using millions on part restoration, part new construction, to the dismay of archaeologists, with his name inscribed on many of the bricks, in imitation of Nebuchadnezzar. One frequent inscription reads: "This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq". This recalls the ziggurat at Ur, where each individual brick was stamped with "Ur-Nammu, king of Ur, who built the temple of Nanna". These bricks became sought after as collectors' items after the downfall of Saddam, and the ruins are no longer being restored to their original state. He also installed a huge portrait of himself and Nebuchadnezzar at the entrance to the ruins. He also shored up Processional Way, a big boulevard of ancient stones, and the Lion of Babylon, a black rock sculpture about 2,600 years old. When the Gulf War ended, he wanted to build a modern palace, also over some old ruins, it was made in the pyramidal style of a Sumerian ziggurat. He named it Saddam Hill. In 2003, he was ready to begin the construction of a cable car line over Babylon when the invasion began and halted the project. Interestingly enough, an article published in the New York Times in July 2006 states that UN officials and the Iraqi administration have plans for restoring Babylon, making it a gem of a new Iraq as a cultural center complete with shopping malls, hotels, and maybe even a theme park

Effects of the U.S military US forces were criticised for building a helipad on ancient Babylonian ruins following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, under the command of General James T. Conway of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. The vibrations from helicopter landings led a nearby Babylonian structure to collapse.[6] US forces have occupied the site for some time and have caused damage to the archaeological record. In a report of the British Museum's Near East department, Dr. John Curtis describes how parts of the archaeological site were levelled to create a landing area for helicopters, and parking lots for heavy vehicles. Curtis wrote that the occupation forces "caused substantial damage to the Ishtar Gate, one of the most famous monuments from antiquity [...] US military vehicles crushed 2,600year-old brick pavements, archaeological fragments were scattered across the site, more than 12 trenches were driven into ancient deposits and military earth-moving projects contaminated the site for future generations of scientists [...] Add to all that the damage

caused to nine of the moulded brick figures of dragons in the Ishtar Gate by people trying to remove the bricks from the wall." The head of the Iraqi State Board for Heritage and Antiquities, Donny George, said that the "mess will take decades to sort out". Colonel Coleman issued an apology for the damage done by military personnel under his command in April 2006, and claimed that they were trying to protect the site from looters

Famed for its gardens and ziggurats, the ziggurat, the stepped pyramid at the heart of the ancient city, may have been the origin of the Tower of Babel. The site of the gardens has never been identified: it remains one of the city's many mysteries, which the damage revealed in the report may mean can never be solved the ancient city of Babylon is now little but dust in the Iraqi desert. We discovered the fate of this fabled city by using a variety of methods. We combined searches on "ancient city of Babylon" and "Babylon Iraq" with visits to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and Tower of Babel categories in the Yahoo! Directory. We also stopped by Yahoo! Reference for a helpful overview. Babylon was perhaps the first big city in the world, dating to the third millennium BC. It stood by the Euphrates River on an important trade route. Various dynasties ruled the city-state as it grew to govern much of ancient Mesopotamia. Hammurabi was one noted ruler of the city, and established the Code of Hammurabi. This is the earliest known example of a code of laws publicly announced from a ruler to his subjects. The city was destroyed in 689 BC and rebuilt to achieve its greatest size glory under the ruler Nebuchadnezzar II, who reigned from 605 to 538 BC. He is credited with building the hanging gardens, named by contemporaries as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. These dramatic terraced gardens were kept green and thriving by a complex irrigation system. In 330 BC, Alexander the Great captured Babylon, planning to make it the capital of his empire. But he died soon after taking the city, and his successors built a new capital called Seleucia on the Tigris River. Most of Babylon's population moved to Seleucia, and Babylon withered and practically disappeared by the seventh century AD.

Babylon's ruins are near the modern city of Al Hillah and about 55 miles south of Iraq's capital of Baghdad. Much of the ancient site has been looted, and only fragments of some building foundations remain. Victorian archeologists excavated some of Babylon's treasures, and those can only be seen in German, French, and British museums. The enormous and elaborate Ishtar Gate from the sixth century BC is in Berlin; Iraq has called for its return. Between 1982 and walls rebuilt in of his own grand about all that's 1989, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein ordered Babylon's the fashion of Nebuchadnezzar II. Hussein also built one palaces near the site. Today, the baked-mud bricks are left of Babylon's ancient grandeur.

Palace

Front Door

Palace Balcony

The Sumerian city-state of Ur contained an enormous mountain temple, known as a ziggurat, to honor the moon-god, Nanna.

2a

Most Sumerian cities were surrounded by high walls to keep out would-be invaders. The city-state of Ur is believed to have also been surrounded by a great moat. ITEMS FROM THE ROYAL TOMBS OF UR

3 A harp, made in the image of a bull.

4 Ram-in-the-thicket

5 This headdress belonged to a Sumerian queen.

5a Hammurabi, an early ruler of Babylonia, created an important written law code. This stela depicts Hammurabi receiving the law code from Shamash, the sun-god.

15 A truly enormous ziggurat dominated the skyline of the capital city of Babylon. It was referred to as "E-temen-enki", the "foundation of heaven and earth", or the Tower of Babel. 1 The Ishtar Gate was the triumphant entry-way into the city of Babylon. It was dedicated to Ishtar, the goddess of carnal love.

Saddam's Presidential Palace and ruins of ancient Babylon

(Aerial View) Babylon, Iraq

Ancient Babylon

(Aerial Views) Babylon, Iraq

Babylon - Photo by Daniel O'Connell Gunnery Sergeant, USMC

In these closeups of the helicopter view, you can see ancient ruins of King Nebuchadnezzar's palace.

Plan of the City of Babylon 500 B.C.

Babylon, Iraq

Walls of King Nebuchadnezzar's Palace

"Procession Street" Babylon, Iraq

King Nebuchadnezzar's Palace Courtyard

Babylon, Iraq

King Nebuchadnezzar's Palace Throne Room

Babylon, Iraq

Brickwork in King Nebuchadnezzar's Palace

Babylon, Iraq