A masterpiece that tells the lover to his beloved: Babylon
In 450 BC, the historian Herodotus said, “Babylon surpasses the splendor of all other cities known on earth.” Herodotus stated that the outer walls of the city were 80 kilometers long, 25 meters thick and 97 meters high, suitable for a chariot with 4 horses. The inner walls were not as thick as the outer walls. Inside the walls were fortresses and temples with large statues made of solid gold. Inside the city was the famous Tower of Babel. This tower was a temple to the god Marduk and rose up to the sky to reach the heavens.
The legendary city of Babylon
The hanging gardens of Babylon were built by King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled for 43 years from 605 BC. According to a weaker rumor, it was built by the Assyrian queen Semiramis, who ruled for 5 years from 810 BC.
City of Babylon King of The Nebuchadnezzar
The gardens were built to cheer up Nebuchadnezzar’s homesick wife Amyitis.Amyitis was the daughter of the king of Medes and had been married to Nebuchadnezzar so that the two countries could become allies. The country she came from was green, hilly and mountainous. This flat and hot environment of Mesopotamia made her depressed. The king decided to build a replica of his wife’s homeland to satisfy her homesickness. He built artificial mountains and large terraces for the water to flow.
Babylon as told by Strabo
As described by the Greek geographer Strabo in the first century BC, gardens consisted of cubic pillars rising one above the other. They were hollow inside and filled with soil to allow large plants and trees to grow. Domes, pillars and terraces were made of baked brick and asphalt. Water was brought up from the Euphrates by chain pumps to irrigate the high gardens.
How Babylon was built
The chain pump was a system of buckets attached to two large flywheels, one above and one at the water source. Filled from the river, the bucket would go up, empty the water into a pool and return to the river. The water carried to the upper levels in this way flowed down the terraces, irrigating the gardens. According to the Greek historian Diodorus, the gardens were about 120 meters wide, 120 meters long and 25 meters high.
How Babylon was destroyed
The city began to decline due to invasions, especially after the conquest of Babylon by the Persian King Keyhusrev, and in the 5th and 6th centuries AD it was buried in the sand and turned into a mountain of sand. The ruins of this city, its temples and hanging gardens were only unearthed by excavations in the 20th century.
