Hammurabi ordered the construction of intricate canals to provide Babylon's citizens with fresh water, and fortified the city's walls against invaders. He concerned himself with food distribution and public safety in a city that represented something entirely new — the intermingling of hordes of people from wildly different cultures. In order to keep the peace among people without ties of blood or religion, Hammurabi created his famous Legal Code , essentially a detailed list of crimes and their associated punishments:.
This early system of retributive justice — inscribed on an 8-foot 2. Hammurabi's singular genius as a military and domestic leader wasn't passed on to his successor. Just days after Hammurabi's death, Babylon's old enemies declared their independence and readied their armies for invasion. The Babylonian kingdom fell to pieces and the city wouldn't return to glory for more than 1, years.
It was great and terrible Nebuchadnezzar II who rebuilt Babylon as a magnificent paean to the creator god Marduk. Ruling from to B. Because of Nebuchadnezzar's imperialist cruelty and penchant for golden shrines to pagan gods, Babylon appears as shorthand for everything ungodly in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
In the New Testament Book of Revelation, the " Whore of Babylon " makes an appearance "adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. According to historians , Nechuchadnezzar relocated conquered people around the empire to keep them from organizing rebellions against him — under his leadership, Babylon became the biggest and most modern city in the ancient world.
In addition to building Babylon's colossal city walls, he was responsible for the stunning Processional Way, a wide thoroughfare lined with ornately tiled walls depicting lions and dragons in bright blues and yellows. The Processional Way led to the Ishtar Gate, the city's grand northern entrance. One of Nebuchadnezzar's best-known construction projects was the temple of Marduk, which sat atop a foot meter ziggurat accessible by a ramp that curved around its exterior.
The Greek historian Herodotus, writing centuries after Babylon's heyday, described eight towers stacked on top of one another.
It's not hard to believe that Old Testament authors may have modeled their Tower of Babel after the Marduk temple, known as the "house of the frontier between heaven and Earth.
Just a few short decades after Nebuchadnezzar's death, Babylon was taken by the Persian conqueror Cyrus II, who reduced the city to just another outpost in his vast, Iran-based empire. Two centuries later, Alexander the Great planned to make Babylon the jewel of his Asian empire, but ended up dying in the city in B.
After a solid sacking by the Parthians in the second century C. Two millennia of looting and warfare reduced Babylon to the barest of ruins. In the early 20th century, German archeologists recovered remnants of the Processional Way and reconstructed its blue-glazed tile murals at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
It was Saddam Hussein who took up Nebuchadnezzar's mantle and tried to reconstruct some of Babylon's former glory, but ended up with what art historians decried as " Disney for a despot. Yet archaeologists have turned up scant evidence of the gardens. Some researchers have uncovered evidence that suggests the hanging gardens existed, but not in Babylon —they may have actually been located in the city of Nineveh in upper Mesopotamia.
The main entrance to the inner city of Babylon was called the Ishtar Gate. The portal was decorated with bright blue glazed bricks adorned with pictures of bulls, dragons and lions. In ancient Babylon, the new year started with the spring equinox and marked the beginning of the agricultural season.
After the invasion of Iraq , United States forces built a military base on the ruins of Babylon. The site was reopened to tourists in Babylon; Metropolitan Museum of Art. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.
Its history is marked by many important inventions that changed the world, including the concept The Persian Empire is the name given to a series of dynasties centered in modern-day Iran that spanned several centuries—from the sixth century B.
Sumer was an ancient civilization founded in the Mesopotamia region of the Fertile Crescent situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Known for their innovations in language, governance, architecture and more, Sumerians are considered the creators of civilization as Jerusalem is a city located in modern-day Israel and is considered by many to be one of the holiest places in the world.
Jerusalem is a site of major significance for the three largest monotheistic religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity, and both Israel and Palestine have Petra is an ancient city that lies in present-day Jordan and dates back to the fourth century B.
Ruins of the once-great metropolis and trading center now serve as an important archeologic site and tourist attraction. Where Is Petra? Petra is located about miles south Palmyra is an ancient archaeological site located in modern-day Syria. Originally founded near a fertile natural oasis, it was established sometime during the third millennium B. Masada is an ancient stone fortress in Israel, located high above the Dead Sea on a tall, rocky mesa.
Attila the Hun was the leader of the Hunnic Empire from to A. Live TV. The tower was an attempt to reach the heavens, but God became angry with the builders, causing them to speak in different language and creating confusion that did not allow them to complete the tower. The Hebrews believe that the city may have been named after the Hebrew word Bavel meaning confusion.
Babylon also features prominently in the books of Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and in the Book of Revelation. Click me. What is Alabama known for? Your personal data will be governed by Mapsofworld Privacy Policy and Terms.
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