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The name "Babylon" comes from an ancient Akkadian phrase meaning "Gate of the God" or "Gate of the Gods." For many centuries, this massive metropolis served as the leading center of ancient Mesopotamia, the fertile region situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Today, the extensive ruins of the city lie in modern-day Iraq, approximately 95 kilometers southwest of Baghdad. At the peak of its power, Babylon was the largest city in the world, acting as a dominant hub for culture, religious practice, and political authority.
Babylon's historical legacy is a complex mix of deep admiration and severe criticism. Ancient Greek authors wrote about the city with immense respect, especially regarding its legendary Hanging Gardens, which were listed among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In stark contrast, biblical tradition assigned the city a deeply negative reputation. Stories such as the Tower of Babel in the Book of Genesis depicted it as a symbol of human arrogance and divine punishment. Later biblical texts, including Daniel and Revelation, strengthened this image, portraying the city as a center of oppression. Historian Paul Kriwaczek noted that Babylon "can blame her evil repute squarely on the Bible." Paradoxically, these very biblical stories preserved the memory of Babylon for thousands of years, eventually guiding German archaeologist Robert Koldewey to its systematic excavation, which began in 1899.
Babylon was founded before the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 24th century BCE. For a long time, it functioned as a relatively small but wealthy trading port along the Euphrates River. The city's importance grew dramatically under King Hammurabi, who ruled from 1792 to 1750 BCE. He made it the capital of his vast empire and is best known for creating a comprehensive legal code. After Hammurabi died, his empire quickly broke apart. The Hittites attacked and looted the city in 1595 BCE, after which the Kassites took control and renamed the region Karanduniash.
In the centuries that followed, Babylon came under the rule of the Chaldeans and then the Neo-Assyrian Empire. A final period of native rule began in 626 BCE when Nabopolassar became king, founding the Neo-Babylonian Empire. This era represents the last great time of Babylon's independence. The empire fell to the Persian forces of Cyrus the Great around 539 BCE. Babylon later served as an administrative capital for the Persian Achaemenid Empire until Alexander the Great conquered it in 331 BCE. Although it remained a commercial center under later empires, the city never regained its former political and cultural dominance. It was eventually abandoned after the Muslim Arab conquest in the 7th century CE.
For over a millennium, knowledge of Babylon survived mainly through biblical and classical texts. In the late 20th century, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein started controversial restoration projects, including the rebuilding of the famous Ishtar Gate. The original gate, excavated by Koldewey, is now displayed in Berlin's Pergamon Museum. In 2019, the ruins of this monumental city were officially designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognizing their outstanding universal value.
The earliest written record of Babylon appears in an inscription from the time of Sargon of Akkad, describing it as a small but rich river port. The city developed under a series of Amorite kings who established Babylon's first dynasty. However, for a significant time, it remained politically weaker than neighboring city-states like Larsa.
King Hammurabi's father tried, but failed, to defeat Larsa. When Hammurabi became king, he initially pretended to submit to the ruler of Larsa. Secretly, he strengthened Babylon's defenses and gathered a powerful army. When Larsa asked for his help against invading Elamite forces, Hammurabi sent troops. After their common enemy was defeated, he betrayed his ally, conquered Larsa, and then defeated his remaining rivals. Hammurabi published his famous legal code and unified all of Mesopotamia under Babylonian control. By approximately 1755 BCE, Babylon had become the most populous city in the world, with an estimated population exceeding 200,000 people. Consequently, the entire southern Mesopotamian region became known as Babylonia.
After Hammurabi died, his empire collapsed. Babylon was sacked by the Hittites and later governed by the Kassites for centuries. During this Kassite period, construction began on the city's grand ziggurat, a massive stepped temple tower. This structure later became associated with the biblical Tower of Babel. Scholars suggest this connection arose from a linguistic confusion between the Akkadian "Bāb-ilim" (Gate of the God) and the similar Hebrew word "balal" (to confuse).
The biblical narrative tells of humanity's attempt to build a tower reaching heaven, which prompted God to confuse their languages to stop the project. Scholar Samuel Noah Kramer suggested that Hebrew scribes, seeing the ruined Mesopotamian ziggurats, invented a story of divine punishment for human pride. To the Mesopotamians themselves, however, these ziggurats were sacred structures meant to connect humanity with the divine.
Babylon's relationship with the rising Assyrian Empire was often violent. In 689 BCE, the Assyrian king Sennacherib, frustrated by repeated Babylonian rebellions, ordered the city's total destruction. His troops looted, burned, and symbolically scattered its ruins. This extreme act was widely seen as sacrilege. Sennacherib was later assassinated by his own sons, and his successor, Esarhaddon, tried to rebuild and restore Babylon.
After the collapse of the Assyrian Empire, Nabopolassar established the Neo-Babylonian Empire. His son, Nebuchadnezzar II, became the empire's most famous builder. He started a massive renovation of Babylon, transforming it into one of the most impressive cities in the ancient world. The city covered about 900 hectares and was filled with magnificent architecture.
Most classical authors, excluding biblical writers, depicted Babylon with awe. They detailed its huge defensive walls, the glazed brick Ishtar Gate, and the terraced Hanging Gardens. The Greek historian Herodotus described the city as a perfect square surrounded by massive walls and a deep, water-filled moat. While modern historians believe he exaggerated its size, his account shows the powerful impression Babylon made on foreign visitors.
Nebuchadnezzar II is traditionally credited with building the Hanging Gardens, along with the Ishtar Gate. The ancient historian Diodorus Siculus provided a detailed description, portraying the gardens as a dramatic series of raised terraces supporting many trees and plants. He recorded that water was lifted from the Euphrates River for irrigation using sophisticated, hidden machinery.
Recent scholarship, however, challenges this traditional attribution. Expert Stephanie Dalley argues that the famous gardens were actually built by the Assyrian king Sennacherib at his capital, Nineveh. She notes that detailed contemporary descriptions of Sennacherib's palace gardens closely match the legendary Hanging Gardens, and no definitive archaeological evidence for them has been found at Babylon.
If the gardens were indeed in Babylon, they would have been part of the city's central religious district. The Euphrates River cut through the urban area. On one bank stood the Temple of Marduk, Babylon's principal deity, and the great ziggurat, named Etemenanki. Nebuchadnezzar II built wide processional avenues for the annual religious festival during which Marduk's statue was paraded through the city. He is also credited with finishing the monumental ziggurat.
The Neo-Babylonian Empire survived after Nebuchadnezzar II's death until 539 BCE, when it fell to the Persian army led by Cyrus the Great. Finding Babylon's fortifications too strong for a direct attack, the Persians used a clever strategy. They diverted the Euphrates River to lower its water level. While the Babylonian people were busy with a religious festival, Persian soldiers waded through the lowered river channel and entered the city through the undefended river gates beneath the walls. The city was captured, although some historical records suggest the conquest involved more fighting than the official Persian accounts claimed.
Under Persian rule, Babylon continued to thrive as a center of art and intellectual activity. Cyrus and his successors generally respected the city's traditions and used it as a key administrative capital. Babylonian skills in mathematics and astronomy were highly valued within the empire. It is believed that the Greek philosopher Thales studied there, and Pythagoras may have learned elements of his famous theorem from earlier Babylonian mathematical knowledge.
When Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in 331 BCE, he treated Babylon with great respect, forbidding his troops from plundering it. He planned major restoration projects, including a scheme to demolish and rebuild the great ziggurat on an even larger scale. However, Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BCE before these plans could be carried out. As historian Stephen Bertman notes, the planned reconstruction never started.
After Alexander's death, his generals fought over his vast empire, and Babylon became a battleground in their conflicts. Its inhabitants gradually fled to safer places. By the time the Parthian Empire controlled the region, Babylon was merely a shadow of its former glory. It slowly fell into decay and, despite some minor revivals, never regained its ancient prominence.
The Muslim Arab conquest in the mid-7th century CE destroyed the last remnants of the once-great city. Over the following centuries, wind-blown sand gradually buried its remains. European travelers during the 17th and 18th centuries began collecting artifacts from the site. In the 19th century, major archaeological expeditions, often funded by European museums, systematically uncovered the great cities of Mesopotamia. Among these was Babylon, the fabled Gate of the Gods, finally rediscovered for the modern era.