Babylon
As ancient Sumer fell to the south, the city of Babylon rose to prominence under initially the Akkadians and then the Amorite Semitic peoples.The native name of Babylon is Babel, corresponding to the the Akkadian, Bab-ili, meaning "gate of the god."
Among the Jews, the word Babel is often associated with "confusion", hence the word, "babbling", otherwise implying incoherence. According to the Old Testament accounts in the Bible Genesis 11:1-9, the construction by the Babylonians of the great tower of Babel angered God, who then condemned the builders by confounding the people's languages, so that no one could understand one another. Thus the building project failed.
Origins of Ancient Babylon
Earliest mention of ancient Babylon is in a dated tablet during the reign of Sargon of Akkad (24th century BC) who originally established the city as the capital of the Akkadian empire.
The Amorites migrated from the west as nomadic semitic herdsman and by the end of the 2nd millenium BC, culturally dominated much of the northern half of Sumeria; in 1867BC, the Amorites reestablished Babylon as the capital of Babylonia just 85 km south of modern day Baghdad.
Upon its foundation, Babylon was divided equally in half on both sides of the Euphrates river, lined by steep embankments to contain the annual floods of the river. With the self proclamation of kingship by the Amorite chieftan Sumu-abum, Babylon declared itself independent from vassalage to nearby Kazallu.
Hammurabi's Empire
With the ascension of Hammurabi in 1792BC-1750BC along with his guile and ingenuity as a military leader, Babylon came to conquer all of ancient Mesapotamia. It is thought that Babylon remained the largest city in the ancient world for a century, numbering almost 200,000 people.
Known famously as the first codifier of laws, Hammurabi ordered the first written code into history, laid out on the famous Steles of Hammurabi, over 12 tablets each 8 feet tall, inscribed with over 282 statements written in Akkadian. By modern standards the decrees are exceedingly harsh, containing a commonly reiterated motto of "an eye of an eye and a tooth for a tooth", or retaliatory punishment.
Hammurabi's Code
Despite the barbarity of the ancient edicts, Hammurabi is depicted in many USgovernment buildings, comprising one of 23 historic lawgivers set in marble bas-reliefs at the US house of Representatives, United States Capitol, and the US Supreme Court building.
Throughout his reign, the king undertook several extensive building projects in the ancient city, including heightening the walls and expanding the temples. Threats from ancient Elam to the east convinced Hammurabi to ally with Larsa to attack Elam, and succeeded in repelling the Elamites from the Valley. However, Larsa did not come to aid Hammurabi when needed. Angered, Hammurabi invaded Larsa, and made the city part of his growing empire in 1763BC. Another series of conflicts with cities in the north completed Hammurabi's conquest of the entire Tigris Valley several years later.
Foreign Invasion and the Assyrian Yoke
Without the firm hand of Hammurabi's rule, the empire soon fragmented back into petty competing city states, and the Amorites continued to rule a powerful city state among many in the region until the Hittites invaded and took control of Babylon c.1595BC. Quickly after, the Kassites from the Zagros mountains captured Babylon and made it the capital of a newly forged empire, renaming it Karanduniash. For over 4 centuries, the clannish Kassite rulers provided amazing stability to greater Babylonia until around 1160BC. Babylon itself fell under several different foreign occupations during this time, including the Elamites to the east, and the Assyrians to the northwest.
Under Assryia, ancient Babylon suffered under tyrannical conquerors, lasting for about three centuries from 911BC-608BC. In 689BC, in retaliation to an uprising in Babylon, the wrathful Sennacherib of Assyria wiped the city out, razing its walls and buildings to the ground. So much did it shock the Mesapotamian world that Sennacherib was assassinated. Later in 652BC, civil war sparked between two rival Assyrian brothers, Babylon caught in between the two. The city was starved by siege, and Ashurbanipal took the city from his rival brother.
Gate of Ishtar
Babylon Restored to its former Glory
Eventually though, so weakened by its internal conflicts and constant civil wars, Assyria fell to Nabopolassar, and a new Babylon was established in 612BC. Under his succeeding son, Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylon grew to be as prosperous as it had under the famous Hammurabi a thousand years earlier. A program of extensive building projects restored the Etemenanki Ziggurat, and over 8 gates which ringed the city, including the great Gate of Ishtar, and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the hanging gardens of Babylon.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar II supposedly built the monument for his foreign wife of Media, who longed to see the trees and plants of her distant homeland. According to Greek Historians such as Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, the gardens lay surrounded by walls, constructed of large slabs of stone, and towers. Upon a series of ascending terraces like a theater, it lay strewn with gardens, within even the largest of trees took root; stairways led up to each tier, accompanied by a parallel water screw (similar to the Archimedes screw), which pushed the water of the Euphrates river up to each level.
Proposed Foundations of Hanging Gardens
Whether the monument actually existed is a matter of debate among scholars. German archaeologist Robert Koldewey is said to have discovered its underlying foundations. Other historians disagree, arguing that the gardens of legend are confused with a similar set of gardens that are located in Nineveh in Assyria.
The Tower of Babel
The tower of Babel mentioned in the Bible mostly likely drew inspiration from the Ziggurat of Marduk, Etemenanki, while the Jews remained in captivity within Babylon's walls. The temple during the time of Nebuchadnezzar II and probably earlier, was dedicated to the patron city god of Marduk. Nebuchadnezzar writes that the ziggurat actually had been built many centuries earlier. According to the king, "a former king built the Temple of the Seven Lights of the Earth, but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time, people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words. Since that time earthquakes and lightning had dispersed its sun-dried clay; the bricks of the casing had split, and the earth of the interior had been scattered in heaps."
Tower of Babel (Etemenanki)
The Greek historian Herotodus (440BC), arrived before the dismantling of the ziggurat by Alexander the Great, describing the edifices dimensions, and stairs, which led to a top sanctuary that housed a golden virgin. In the topmost tier of "Zeus Belus", the god of Marduk apparently "appeared" occasionally to the priests. Animal sacrifices were made to the temple god to appease the divine lord, and to predict the future for Nebuchadnezzar and his successors.
Modern remains of Tower
Unfortunately, the grandeur of the tower was lost when the invading Macedonians took over the city. Alexander ordered the tower's tiles and walls to be moved to another location to be rebuilt. However, with the death of Alexander just a few years later, reconstruction halted. Only the squarish base is now visible. Google earth places its position at 32.5362583N and 44.4208252E just south of Baghdad.
The Persian Conquest
A few decades after the golden era of Babylon's independent glory under Nebuchadnezzar, the empire was eclipsed by a new power rising in the east. Led by Cyrus the Great, Babylon fell under the protection and influence of the Persian Empire in 538 BC.
Cyrus immediately issued a decree permitting the Jews to return to their own land (Ezra 1). Under Cyrus and his heir Darius I, Babylon grew into a center of learning and scientific advancement. Babylonian scholars completed maps of constellations, and created the foundations of modern astronomy and mathematics. However, during the reign of Darius III, Babylon began to stagnate.
Hellenic Takeover
In 331 BC, Darius III was defeated by the forces of Alexander the Great at the battle of Gaugamela. By October, Babylon became the property of the burgeoning empire of Hellenic Greece. A native account of the invasion of the city notes that Alexander warned that no soldiers were to enter the homes of the inhabitants.
Under Alexander, Babylon again flourished as a center of learning and commerce. Following Alexander's death in 323 BC in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar, the empire proceeded to be divided amongst the Macedonian generals; decades of fighting soon began, with Babylon once again caught in the middle of the fray.The constant turmoil virtually emptied the city of Babylon. A tablet dated 275 BC states that the inhabitants of Babylon traveled to Seleucia, where a palace and temple in remembrance of the city were built, named E-Saggila.
Here, the history of Babylon comes to a final end, even though more than a century later, sacrifices were performed in the cities old sanctuary. By 141 BC, the Parthian Empire taking over the region describes Babylon as being in complete desolation and obscurity.
The Remains
Historical knowledge of Babylon's topography is reconstructed from classical writers, such as Herotodus, the inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar, and a few scattered tell mound excavations, including those of the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft begun in 1899. The extant layout is mostly comprised of the New Babylon of Nebuchadrezzar; the older Babylon destroyed over the centuries by countless invasions, notably the massacre of the Assyrian tyrant Sennacherib.
Most of the existing remains lie on the east bank of the Euphrates, the principal ones being three mounds: the Babil to the north, the Qasr or "Palace" (also known as the Mujelliba) in the centre, and the Ishgn "Amran ibn".
East of the mounds is the Ishgn el-Aswad or "Black Mound" and three lines of rampart. West of the Euphrates are other ramparts, and the remains of ancient Borsippa.
Much of the larger ruins seen in the old photographs predates Suddam Hussein's ambitious reconstruction projects of the old city, which was built directly on top of the old remains.
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