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Ishtar Gate

Babylon (“Gate of God”) – a majestic city in Mesopotamia of the Ancient World, the capital of the state “Babylonia” – in the distant past was the center of the “world kingdom”. Now these are ancient ruins located approximately 90 km south of Baghdad (Iraq).

History of the "Eternal Abode of Royalty"

The emergence of Babylon occurs in the second half of the third millennium BC, on the banks of the Euphrates River in the center of Mesopotamia.

• By the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. attributed to the founding of a new dynasty in the then small Babylon. When Hammurabi ascended the throne, Babylon became a political center and maintained this position for more than a millennium.

Interesting fact: During the reign of Hammurabi, Babylon received the status of “the eternal abode of royalty.”

Babylon, as the capital of Southern Mesopotamia, grew rich and quickly developed trade and crafts. Growth in the economic sector affected the appearance of Babylon, turning it into a luxurious and regal city. The architecture, roads and building plans changed.

Lion of Babylon

• The tragic event for Babylon (689 BC) occurred during the period of aggression by the king of Assyria, Sennacherib, who flew into a rage from Babylon’s disobedience. Sennacherib destroyed the capital, and the city that was excavated by the archaeologist Koldway is not the old Babylon, but a new one rebuilt and restored.
• After the death of the Assyrian king, Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon. The period of his power (604-562 BC) is the era of the apogee of the development of Babylonia - economic, social and cultural.

Babylon, thanks to the military conquests of the country, became the center of the influx of material and cultural wealth. Thanks to which a grandiose reconstruction effort was carried out in Babylon, the capital became the largest and richest center of the ancient Near East.

Features of the construction and architecture of Babylon

The city plan was divided into 2 parts - the Old and New cities, which were located on different banks of the Euphrates. The left bank is the Old Town area. Rich estates were located here. And on the right bank of the river there was a New City. Mostly ordinary townspeople lived here.

The Old and New cities were connected by a huge stone bridge. Quite long straight streets ran through the entire city, dividing it into rectangular blocks.

National and cultural diversity

Babylon was a major capital with a population of approximately 200 thousand inhabitants. In addition to the Babylonians, people of other cultures, languages ​​and nationalities lived in the city. There were also forcibly brought slaves and captives. Representatives of a particular culture spoke their own languages ​​and followed their own traditions.

"Miracles" of Babylon

This legendary city was not only a powerful center, but also an incredibly beautiful city. Herodotus called it the most beautiful place he had ever seen. The Gardens of Babylon (Hanging Gardens) and the Tower of Babel, which are Wonders of the World, the Gate of the Goddess Ishtar, the seven-tiered Ziggurat Tower and the Babylonian Lion- this is what you should definitely see if you are planning to visit the ruins of Babylon.

• 539 - the time of the conquest of Babylon by the Persians. After the uprising of 479, the city lost its independence and status as the state capital and the most important cultural center.

Later, the inhabitants of Babylon began to be resettled to Seleucia on the Tigris, the new capital. Ultimately, what remained of Babylon was a poor settlement, which soon also disappeared. The once great, powerful city of kings and gods has turned into sand-covered and forgotten ruins.

BABYLON
the famous ancient city in Mesopotamia, the capital of Babylonia; was located on the Euphrates River, 89 km south of modern Baghdad and north of Hilla. In the ancient Semitic language it was called "Bab-ilyu", which meant "Gate of God", in Hebrew this name was transformed into "Babel", in Greek and Latin - into "Babilon". The original name of the city has survived centuries, and to this day the northernmost of the hills on the site of ancient Babylon is called Babil. Excavations of the gigantic complex of ruins remaining from the ancient city were begun in 1899 by the German Eastern Society under the direction of Robert Koldewey.

On the historical horizon, Babylon appears in the Old Babylonian period (c. 1900 - c. 1600 BC). At the beginning of this period, the previously insignificant town of Bab-il in Akkad became the capital of a small kingdom ruled by the Amorite Sumuabum, who became the founder of the First Babylonian Dynasty. His successors were Sumu-la-El, Sabium, Apil-Sin, Sinmuballit and Hammurabi, who reigned from 1792 to 1750 BC. Hammurabi was the most famous ruler of the era and became famous not only for his military successes, but also as a wise ruler. Having defeated Rim-Sin from Larsa, Hammurabi captured Sumer, located in the lower part of the Mesopotamian valley, and became the ruler of the Sumerian-Akkadian kingdom; Having captured the kingdom of Mari, he expanded the borders of his state to the upper reaches of the Euphrates. Even earlier, Hammurabi carried out important reforms, completely subjugating the temples administratively and economically, streamlining the collection of taxes and creating a unified judicial system; his work as a legislator is recorded in the famous Laws of Hammurabi, a copy of which was found at Susa.

Excavations in the central part of the Merkes Hill in Babylon reached a layer lying partly above and partly below the groundwater level and dating back to the First Dynasty. From the uncovered remains of the city it is clear that it was well planned, the streets intersected one another at right angles. The houses found were built of mud brick and surrounded by the same walls on a baked brick foundation. Already under Hammurabi's son Samsuilun, invasions of the Kassite tribes descending from the eastern mountains began. For more than a century, Samsuiluna and his successors managed to hold back the onslaught of the Kassites. However, they eventually managed to take over the country and ruled Babylon for almost half a millennium (c. 1600 - c. 1155 BC). Excavations of the Kassite layer of Merkes Hill showed that the layout of streets and neighborhoods during this period remained almost the same as in the time of Hammurabi. Houses of this period were built of mud brick, but, as a rule, did not have the baked brick foundation that was a characteristic feature of the city of Hammurabi. Ceramics had a definitely original character; the abundance of jewelry is especially noteworthy. The Kassite dynasty was replaced by the II Dynasty of Issin, which held power in Babylonia for more than a century. Its most prominent king was Nebuchadnezzar I (1126-1105), who managed to subjugate Assyria for a time. However, after him, for most of the Middle Babylonian period, the country was under Assyrian domination. Sargon II in 710 BC captured Babylon and was crowned king here. Then he built a massive wall with a round corner tower at the southern citadel of Babylon, leaving on its stone walls the inscription: “To Marduk! Great Lord, divine creator who lives in Esagila, Lord Babila, his lord; Sargon, the mighty king, King of the land of Ashur , king of all. Ruler of Babil, king of Sumer and Akkad, provider of Esagila and Ezida." Sargon's son Sennacherib in 689 BC. completely destroyed the city and even turned the waters of the Euphrates towards it in order to wash away most of it from the face of the earth. However, his successor Esarhaddon restored and rebuilt the city. In particular, the main temple of Babylon, Esagila, was restored; At the same time, the famous ziggurat was built, which went down in history under the name of the Tower of Babel.
Neo-Babylonian period(612-539 BC) began with the seizure of royal power in Babylon by the Chaldean Nabopolassar, who entered into an alliance with other anti-Assyrian forces and destroyed it in 612 BC. Nineveh, capital of Assyria. Under his son and successor Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC), Babylon reached its greatest prosperity. Then, as the German archaeologists who were excavating Babylon called it, “a colossal restructuring of the entire city” took place. Everything was rebuilt: Esagila - the temple of Marduk, the ziggurat of Etemenanki, the temple of Emah in the citadel and the more ancient temple of Ishtar on Merkes. The southern citadel was supplemented with a royal palace, and another palace was built in its northern part. The walls of the early city were restored, and the city grew in size and was surrounded by a huge outer wall; Canals were dug and the first stone bridge across the Euphrates was built. The Hanging Gardens were considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but modern excavations have not been able to provide materials by which their remains can be confidently identified. The most magnificent buildings of Babylon of that period were, as far as one can judge from the surviving remains, the Ishtar Gate and the Avenue of Processions, which were given an elegant appearance by friezes of bulls, dragons and lions made of colored tiles. The last king of this period was Nabonidus, who shared power in Babylon with his eldest son Belsharutsur (Belshazzar). As a result of excavations, it was established that after Nabonidus, a new temple of Ishtar on Merkes and a powerful fortification wall with a large pier on the banks of the Euphrates remained in Babylon. In 539 BC, as noted in the Chronicle of Nabonidus and the Scroll of Cyrus, Babylon was captured by the Persian king Cyrus II the Great. Descriptions of Babylon during the time of the Persian kings, left by Herodotus and Ctesias, the physician of Artaxerxes II, have reached us; From the time of Artaxerxes II, the ruins of a building in the southern citadel have been preserved. There is no doubt that the decline of Babylon began already before its conquest by Alexander the Great. Alexander, who chose Babylon as his capital, intended to carry out major restoration work here, but died before he could carry out his plans. During the Greek and Parthian periods, the remaining royal buildings from antiquity began to be dismantled for material for new construction, and this continued for centuries until the city remained in ruins.

Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .

Synonyms:

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A Brief History of Babylonia

At the end of the 13th century, the economic and political decline of Babylon was observed, which its neighbors did not fail to take advantage of: Assyria and Elam. The Elamite invasions were especially dangerous. In the middle of the 12th century BC. all of Babylonia was captured by them, and the last Kassite king, Ellil-nadin-ahhe, was taken captive. An Elamite protege was appointed governor of Babylon, and the Elamites continued military campaigns in the south and north of the country. The initiative to fight against Elamite rule passed to the city of Isin, located in the west of Babylonia. The country gradually began to gain strength, and under King Nebuchadnezzar I (Nabukudurriutsur, 1126-1105 BC) it flourished briefly. Having defeated the Elamites in a battle near the fortress of Der, the Babylonians invaded Elam and inflicted a severe defeat on it.

In the middle of the 11th century BC. e. semi-nomadic tribes of the Arameans, who lived west of the Euphrates, began to invade Babylonia and Assyria, which united in the face of a common danger. By the end of the 9th century BC. e. they managed to firmly settle on the western and northern borders of Babylonia. Since the 8th century BC. e., over the course of several centuries in the history of Babylonia, the Chaldean tribes (Kaldu) began to play a major role. They lived on the shores of the Persian Gulf, along the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates. In the 9th century BC. e. The Chaldeans firmly occupied the southern part of Babylonia and began a gradual advance to the north, adopting the ancient Babylonian culture and religion. The Chaldeans were engaged in cattle breeding, hunting and, partly, agriculture.

Babylonia was divided into 14 administrative districts. From the end of the 12th century, Babylon again became the capital. The tsar managed a vast fund of state lands, from which allotments were allocated to soldiers for their service. Kings often gave land holdings to their confidants and temples. The army consisted of infantry, cavalry and charioteers, whose role in wars was especially important.

At the end of the 9th century BC. e. The Assyrians often invade Babylonia and gradually capture the north of the country. The Assyrian state at this time became a powerful kingdom. In 744 BC. e. The Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III invaded Babylonia and defeated the Chaldean tribes. In 729 BC. e. he completely captured Babylonia. However, Babylonia had the status of a separate kingdom within Assyria. During the reign of Sargon II, the Assyrians were unable to maintain power over Babylonia. The Chaldean leader Marduk-apla-iddin took possession of Babylonia and declared himself king of the country. In alliance with the Elamites, he started a war. At the beginning, in 720-710. BC e. the allies were successful. But soon Sargon II defeated Elam and ousted Marduk-apla-iddin from Babylonia. He was crowned in Babylon. In 705-703. Marduk-apla-iddin again began military operations against Assyria, but again unsuccessfully. In 692 BC. e. The Babylonians rebelled against Assyria and formed an alliance with Elam and the Arameans. In the Battle of Halule on the Tigris, both sides suffered heavy losses, but neither side achieved decisive success. But in 690 BC. e. the Assyrian king Sinankherib besieged Babylon and in 689 the city fell. A brutal massacre was carried out. Many residents were killed, some were taken into slavery. The city itself was completely destroyed, and its territory was flooded.

At the beginning of his reign, the new Assyrian king Esarhaddon ordered the restoration of Babylon and the return of its surviving inhabitants. Shamash-shum-ukin began to rule Babylonia as a vassal king. In 652 BC. e. he, having concluded a secret alliance with Egypt, the Syrian governments, Elam, as well as with the tribes of the Chaldeans, Arameans and Arabs, rebelled against Assyria. Neither side won the battle at the Der fortress, but soon the Assyrians, through a palace coup, managed to remove Elam from the alliance. Other allies were unable to help Babylonia. The Assyrians besieged Babylon and other cities. After a long siege in the summer of 648 BC. e. Babylon has fallen. The surviving residents faced brutal reprisals.

The defeat of Assyria and the creation of the New Babylonian power
The desire for independence did not weaken in Babylonia, one of the most developed regions of Western Asia. At the beginning of 626 BC. e. A rebellion broke out against Assyrian rule, led by the Chaldean leader Nabopolassar (Nabu-apla-utsur). Having established his power in the north of the country and having concluded an alliance with Elam, he conducted a series of successful campaigns against Assyria. In October 626 BC. e. Babylon went over to Nabopolassar's side, and on November 25, 626, he was solemnly crowned in this city and founded the Chaldean (or Neo-Babylonian) dynasty here. However, only in 616 BC. e. The Babylonians managed to capture one of the largest cities in Babylonia - Uruk. In the same year, the Babylonians besieged the Assyrian city of Ashur, but were unsuccessful. Unexpected help came from the east. In 614 BC. e. The Medes captured the Assyrian province of Arraphu, and then took the city of Ashur, exterminating its inhabitants. Soon the Medes and Babylonians entered into an alliance. In the spring of 612 BC. e. Allies supported by the Scythians besieged the capital of Assyria - Nineveh. In August of the same year, the city fell and was destroyed, and its inhabitants slaughtered. It was a cruel revenge on the state, which for a long time plundered and devastated the countries of Western Asia. Part of the Assyrian army managed to break through to the west, to the city of Harran, and continued resistance there, but in 609 BC. e. Nabopolassar with a large army inflicted a final defeat. As a result of the collapse of the Assyrian power, the Medes captured the indigenous territory of Assyria, as well as the city of Harran, while the Babylonians got Mesopotamia. The Babylonians began preparing to capture all the areas west of the Euphrates that had previously belonged to the Assyrians. But Egypt also laid claim to these territories and sought to take over Syria and Palestine. Therefore, in 607 BC. e. Nabopolassar with a huge army attacked Karkemish on the Euphrates, where there was an Egyptian garrison, which included Greek mercenaries. In 605 BC. e. the city was taken and the garrison destroyed. After this, the Babylonians captured Syria and Palestine.

In 605, Nabopolassar's son, Nebuchadnezzar II, became king. He continued his military campaigns, and in 605 BC. e. he captured the Phoenician city of Ascalon, and in 598 he subjugated Northern Arabia. At the same time, Judea rebelled against Babylonia. In 597 BC. e. Nebuchadnezzar besieged and took Jerusalem, taking about 3,000 of its inhabitants captive. After 8 years, the Egyptians captured some Phoenician cities and prompted Judea to revolt again. After a two-year siege, the Babylonians took Jerusalem. The kingdom of Judah was liquidated, and many Jews were resettled to various parts of Mesopotamia, including Babylon. The Babylonians then laid siege to the Phoenician city of Tyre, which they were only able to take in 574 BC.

The reign of Nebuchadnezzar II was a time of economic prosperity and cultural revival in Babylonia. Babylon became the largest city in the Ancient East with a population of about 200,000 people. At one end of the city there was a huge royal palace, and at the other - the main sanctuary of the Babylonians - Esagila. It was a square building, each side measuring 400 meters in length. A single whole with Esagila was a seven-story ziggurat (step pyramid) located to the south, 91 meters high, which was called Etemenanki (temple of the cornerstone of heaven and earth). Called the “Tower of Babel” in the Bible, it was considered in ancient times one of the wonders of the world. At the top of the tower, where an external staircase led, was the sanctuary of the supreme god Marduk. Hanging gardens, which rested on high stone walls holding soil and exotic trees, were also considered one of the wonders of the world. These gardens were intended for Nebuchadnezzar's wife Amytida, who missed her native place in mountainous Media.

Under Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylon became a powerful fortress. It was surrounded by a double wall, the height of which reached 14 meters. The city was surrounded by a deep and wide moat with water. After the death of Nebuchadnezzar II, after a long internecine struggle, Nabonidus (556-539 BC), who came from the family of an Aramaic leader, came to power. He captured in 553 BC. e. city ​​of Harran. Nabonidus actively promoted the cult of the supreme god Sin, which caused discontent among the priesthood. Nabonidus moved his residence to the city of Teima, and left his son Bel-shar-utsuru (biblical Belshazzar) to rule in Babylon.

Soon, a new enemy appeared on the eastern borders of Babylonia - the Persians, who captured Media, Lydia and many other states. In the spring of 639, the Persians began to attack Babylonia. In August of the same year, near the city of Opis, they defeated the Babylonian army, commanded by Prince Bel-shar-utsur. Having no support among the nobility and priesthood, Nabonidus surrendered, and in October 639 the Persian king Cyrus II entered Babylon. At first, the Persian policy was pacifying. All religions were allowed. The peoples displaced during the reign of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty were allowed to return to their homeland. But soon Persian oppression began to intensify, and in 522-521. BC e, in 484-482. BC e. Several uprisings broke out against the Persians. Babylonia turned into one of the satrapies of the Persian state.

The Babylonian kingdom reached the height of its power in the 6th century BC. under Nebuchadnezzar II. He became famous as a successful conqueror who conquered Judea and took Jerusalem, expelled the Egyptians from Asia Minor, and successfully fought with the Elamites who inhabited the territory of modern Iran. Biblical legends made Nebuchadnezzar's name synonymous with a ruthless conqueror, but for Babylonia his reign was a time of economic prosperity and cultural revival after three centuries of subjugation by Assyria.

The palace, which the eternally dissatisfied Nebuchadnezzar constantly continued to expand, was a real miracle with the richest decorations and multi-colored bas-reliefs made of glazed brick. The king claimed that he built it in fifteen days and this version was passed down from generation to generation for centuries as absolutely reliable.

Fragment of the palace wall, 6th century BC. Pergamon Museum, Berlin

Reconstruction of the entrance to the throne room of the palace

The last image was taken from a video created in 2013 by employees of a Canadian university for the Royal Ontario Museum. This is a kind of "flight" through a three-dimensional reconstruction of Babylon, which, in my opinion, gives the best picture of the city at the time of Nebuchadnezzar.

0:25-0:35 - Processional Road and Ishtar Gate

0:47-1:05 - Palace of Nebuchadnezzar

1:13-1:35 - "Hanging Gardens of Babylon"

Herodotus ranked the gardens among the wonders of the world, but by modern standards it was a rather modest structure. Nebuchadnezzar married the Median princess Amytis, who grew up in mountainous and green Media (now Iran). To please his wife, who was bored in dusty and flat Babylon, the king ordered gardens to be planted on stepped terraces, constantly irrigated by water supplied from below. They received the epithet “hanging”, apparently due to an inaccuracy in translation from Greek. And in history, the name Amytis turned out to be mixed with the name of the Assyrian queen Semiramis, who lived 200 years before her. This is how the name of the gardens was formed, in which two out of three words are incorrect.

1:50-2:05 - "Tower of Babel"


The tallest structure in Babylon was the ziggurat E-temen-anki (House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth), which the Bible called the Tower of Babel. It existed at least since the 18th century BC, was repeatedly destroyed by conquerors, but was restored again and again by the Babylonians. The last reconstruction was started by Nebuchadnezzar’s father, and his son added a proud inscription: “I had a hand in completing the top of E-temen-anka so that it could compete with the sky.” The tower rose in gigantic terraces stacked on top of each other; the higher you go, the smaller the floor size. The width of the lower floor was 90 meters, the total height of the ziggurat was also 90 meters. Near its base was the main temple of the god Marduk, where his golden statue weighing more than 20 tons stood. Thousands of people flocked here to worship their supreme deity.

2:13-2:35 - Panorama of the city from the Sanctuary of Marduk


The topmost floor of the ziggurat was occupied by the sanctuary of Marduk. Covered in gold and lined with blue glazed brick, it was visible from afar and seemed to welcome travelers. Unlike the lower temple, there were no statues here, and there was only a bed and a gilded table. The people did not have access to this sanctuary, since Marduk himself appeared here, and an ordinary mortal could not see him with impunity. Only one chosen woman spent here night after night, ready to share a bed with God.

Three-dimensional reconstruction of Babylon made for the Royal Ontario Museum

For many centuries in Mesopotamia, they built from bricks dried in the sun, which quickly collapsed under the influence of wind and time. Therefore, there are almost no traces left of the buildings of early eras, except for semi-crumbled hills. Nebuchadnezzar began to use real bricks, fired in kilns, in the construction. But almost as little of its buildings remained as of the previous ones, albeit for a different reason: for centuries, the local population looked at their ruins as a kind of quarries and took strong bricks there for their needs. Many villages and even cities in the vicinity of former Babylon were built entirely from bricks bearing the mark of Nebuchadnezzar. We can say that he has firmly entered history...

More about Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon and Koldewey's excavations:

Babylon is one of the cities of Ancient Mesopotamia. It was located in the central part of the Mesopotamian lowland, or rather in its southern half - Lower Mesopotamia or Mesopotamia. Babylon was founded no later than the 3rd millennium BC. e. To date, the oldest finds from Babylon date back to around 2400 BC. e. The city reached its heyday in the 6th century BC - under King Nebuchadnezzar II. Then the lands of Akkad and Sumer were subject to him, and Babylon turned into a major trade and cultural center. The Euphrates flowed through it, along which ships with copper, meat, and building materials came to the city from the north, and caravans with wheat, barley and fruit followed to the north. During the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, the treasures that flowed into Babylon from Western Asia were used to rebuild the capital and build powerful fortifications around it.

In its heyday, Babylon was a large, well-maintained city with powerful fortifications, developed architecture and a high level of culture in general. It was surrounded by a triple ring of walls and a moat, as well as an additional outer wall that covered part of the outskirts. In plan, the city was an almost regular rectangle with a perimeter of 8150 m and an area of ​​about 4 km², and taking into account the territory of “Great Babylon”, covered by the outer wall, the area reached about 10 km². Babylon had a carefully thought-out plan: its walls were oriented to the cardinal points (in accordance with local ideas), the streets intersected at right angles, surrounding the central temple complex, which represented a single ensemble. The Euphrates River divided the capital into two parts - the Western City and the Eastern City. The streets were paved, including with multi-colored bricks. The bulk of the buildings were houses of several floors with blank external walls (windows and doors usually opened onto courtyards) and flat roofs. Both parts of Babylon were connected by two bridges - stationary and pontoon. The city communicated with the outside world through eight gates. They were decorated with glazed bricks and bas-reliefs of lions, bulls and dragon-like creatures - sirrush. In Babylon there were many temples dedicated to various deities - Ishtar, Nanna, Adad, Ninurta, but the patron of the city and the head of the pantheon of the kingdom, Bel-Marduk, enjoyed the greatest respect. In his honor, a large-scale Esagila complex was erected in the very center of the capital.

The luxurious royal palace of Nebuchadnezzar II was located in the corner of the city wall, between the Processional Road and the Euphrates. It occupied a trapezoidal plot of approximately 4.5 hectares and was divided into two halves, separated by a wall and a corridor. According to scientists, the western part of the palace was an earlier structure. The palace was a real fortress in the city, as it was surrounded by powerful walls with a total length of 900 meters. It consisted of five complexes, each of which included an open courtyard around which state halls and other rooms were grouped. The courtyards were connected to each other by fortified gates, and thus each complex was a kind of “fortress within a fortress.”

The entrance to the territory of the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II opened from the east. From here began an enfilade of several large courtyards, which served as the basis for the entire palace composition. Around the first courtyard there were most likely guard quarters; around the second - for officials and associates of the king; the third courtyard united the front rooms of the palace. On the southern side of the third courtyard there was an elongated hall, the largest in area (52 by 17 meters), with openings facing north. By its size, by the particularly lush decoration of dark blue glazed tiles with floral patterns, and by the large niche opposite the central entrance, in which stood the royal throne.

The personal chambers of Nebuchadnezzar II, constituting the most ancient buildings of the entire palace ensemble, were located around the fourth courtyard, and the queen’s apartments and the premises of the royal harem overlooked the fifth courtyard. The majestic palace of the king consisted of 172 rooms with a total area of ​​​​about 52,000 square meters.

The palace was surrounded by greenery. The embankment in front of him and all the courtyards were planted with trees and bushes, standing in large clay vases and on artificial embankments. The embankment in front of the palace was lined with baked bricks, and from the palace itself a stone staircase descended directly to the Euphrates. A pier was built at its foot, near which a luxurious royal boat always rocked in the waves, ready at any time to receive the king and queen.

2 Hanging Gardens

The famous Hanging Gardens were built in the northeastern part of the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II. The “Gardens” were a pyramid consisting of four tiers-platforms. They were supported by columns up to 25 meters high. The lower tier had the shape of an irregular quadrangle, the largest side of which was 42 m, the smallest - 34 m. To prevent the seepage of irrigation water, the surface of each platform was first covered with a layer of reed mixed with asphalt, then with two layers of brick held together with gypsum mortar, lead was laid on top slabs On them lay a thick carpet of fertile soil, where seeds of various herbs, flowers, shrubs, and trees were planted.

The pyramid resembled an ever-blooming green hill. Pipes were placed in the cavity of one of the columns, through which water from the Euphrates was constantly supplied by pumps to the upper tier of the gardens, from where it, flowing in streams and small waterfalls, irrigated the plants of the lower tiers.

3 Esagila

The complex of Esagila, the construction of which was finally completed under Nebuchadnezzar II, was located in the center of Babylon. The complex included a large courtyard (about 40x70 meters in area), a small courtyard (about 25x40 meters in area), and finally a central temple dedicated to Marduk, the patron god of Babylon. The temple consisted of a front part and the sanctum sanctorum, where there were statues of Marduk and his wife Tsarpanit.

In addition, on the territory of the complex there was a small reservoir called Abzu, which was an image of Marduk's father, Enki, who was the god of all fresh waters.

4 Etemenanki

Etemenanki, in Sumerian “House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth”, the so-called “Tower of Babel” is a ziggurat in ancient Babylon. One of the very first ziggurats was built there even before the era of the great king Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC). It was destroyed. It was replaced by another tower, which also collapsed over time. Most information about the Babylonian ziggurat comes from the era of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, 7th-6th centuries. Ekov BC. It was then, under the kings Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II, that Etemenanki was not only restored after a period of neglect, but also reached its greatest splendor. It is from that ziggurat that the most detailed descriptions and outlines of the foundation remain, which have survived to this day and help to judge the size of Etemenanka.

The Ziggurat of Etemenanki was located in the depths of the sacred site in the center of Babylon - Esagila, at the southwestern corner of the main courtyard, and was located somewhat asymmetrically to the courtyard. In fact, it was a multi-stage (most likely seven-tiered) ziggurat-tower 90 m high, built on a high terrace, the base shaped like a square with a side of 250 m.

The lower tier, the base of the ziggurat, was a square with sides of 91.5 m, reaching a height of 33 m. The second tier had a height of 18 m, all subsequent ones were 6 m in height. The inner core of the tower (60x60 m) was made of raw brick. The cladding of the tower reached 15 m in thickness and consisted of baked bricks with bitumen mortar. Perhaps in ancient times the tower was covered with bitumen on top of the facing layer.

Unlike earlier ziggurats, its walls, dissected by rectangular projections (12 on each side), were strictly vertical, or had a slight slope. From the southeast, the main staircase of the ziggurat, 60 m long and 9 m wide, ascended to the tower. On both sides of it, two staircases of the same width, adjacent to the southwestern facade of the base of the ziggurat, led to the first tier.

At the top of the tower there was a sanctuary 15 m high, most likely made of baked bricks, lined with blue tiles. The sanctuary was revered as the residence of the god Marduk and his wife. The sleeping area contained furniture made of gold - a bed, armchairs, statues.

5 Ishtar Gate

A paved street led from the main entrance to the ziggurat - the Processional Road, 35 meters wide. It ended at the Gate of the goddess Ishtar. The Ishtar Gate is the eighth gate of the inner city in Babylon. Built in 575 BC. e. by order of King Nebuchadnezzar in the northern part of the city.

The Ishtar Gate was a huge semicircular arch, bounded on the sides by giant walls. The gate was dedicated to the goddess Ishtar and was made of brick covered with bright blue, yellow, white and black glaze. The walls of the gate and the Processional Road were covered with bas-reliefs of extraordinary beauty, depicting animals in poses very close to natural ones. On the gates there were depictions of sirrushi and bulls, a total of about 575 images of animals. The roof and gate doors were made of cedar.