Power2Travel - Mystery

Title: Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Description: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The powerful Babylonian ruler, Nebuchadnezzar II, built it, to please his wife.

Keywords: Babylon, hanging gardens of Babylon, Babylonia, river, Euphrates, Bible, ancient city, Greek, ancient kingdom, kingdom, Mesopotamia, BC, city, Amorite, Hittite, Kassite, Assyrian, Elamite, Iraq, Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar II, Neo-Babylonian dynasty, Ishtar Gate, Ziggurat, pyramid, Tower of Babel,

THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON
The Hanging Gardens were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. They were located in the most important city of the ancient world, Babylon, the capital of the kingdom of Babylonia. The city of Babylon was located on the banks of river Euphrates, which flowed right through the centre of this ancient city.

THE CITY OF BABYLON
The city of Babylon has a mention in many of the ancient texts. The Bible makes a number of references to Babylon. This city is also cited in a number of ancient Greek texts. It is said that to begin with, prehistoric people inhabited the place where the city of Babylonia is located. The first known references to this city can be traced to the closing years of the 3rd millennium BC. In the course of time this region saw the rise of the ancient kingdom of Mesopotamia.

Babylon had a turbulent history since its very beginning. The control of this city frequently passed from one dynasty to another. The Amorites, the Hittites, the Kassites, the Assyrians and the Elamites all ruled the kingdom one after the other. Babylon became an independent city-state under the rule of the Amorite dynasty. This was the first kingdom in the world, which had a codified law system.

Later the Kassite dynasty transformed the small city-state of Babylon into a vast kingdom, which controlled large parts of present day Iraq. The city of Babylon became an administrative centre. After the fall of the Kassites, it was ruled by a number of small dynasties for short periods of time. It also fell into the hands of the mighty Assyrian empire. But the Assyrians could not hold it for long. The city of Babylon reached its zenith under the rule of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty.

Nabopolassar (625-605 BC) established the Neo-Babylonian dynasty. The kingdom of Babylonia emerged as a powerful state under the rule of king Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC), who was the son of Nabopolassar. Nebuchadnezzar was a strong ruler and he carried out a territorial expansion of Babylonia. He re-established the lost glory of the city of Babylon and it became a sprawling city under his rule. It covered a vast area of 10,000 acres (40.46 sq km or 15.62 sq miles) and became the largest city in the world.

The city had a set of strong double defensive walls around it. Towers and battlements protected sections of these massive walls. The city could be entered from seven towering gateways. The most spectacular amongst these gates was the Ishtar Gate. The Euphrates River was used by the people as a busy waterway for transporting goods and passengers from part of the kingdom to the other.

The city had a number of important buildings and palaces. A huge ziggurat (stepped pyramids made of sun dried mud-bricks), dominated the busy riverside. This building is also known as the "Tower of Babel" and is mentioned in the Bible. It was a towering, 300ft (90 m) high building, which was visible for miles across the flat Euphrates plain. The Tower of Babel was made up of a series of platforms, linked by stairs, which led to a temple at the uppermost level of the pyramid. This shrine was dedicated to Marduk, the chief Babylonian deity

THE HANGING GARDENS
Apart from its temples, palaces and residential buildings, the city had an interesting piece of architecture, which is popularly known as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The legend associated with the origin of these gardens is as interesting as this unique structure. It is said that Nebuchadnezzar built the Hanging Gardens for his wife.

The chief Queen of Nebuchadnezzar belonged to the region of Media, which was set amongst mountains and lush green hills. After her marriage to Nebuchadnezzar, she came to live in Babylon. However, the young princess did not like the dull surroundings of the Euphrates plain. She missed the lush green environs of her hometown. In order to cheer up his wife, Nebuchadnezzar decided to build huge terraces in the city of Babylon, which would be planted with trees and plants. He wanted to duplicate the lush hills of Media, missed by his wife, in these gardens.

The name "Hanging Gardens" is quite a misnomer. These gardens did not hang in the true sense of the word, but they were made of successive levels of terraces. One can get a vivid description of these gardens from the accounts of the ancient Greek historians. According to them the Hanging Gardens were made up of a number of pillared terraces. These terraces were filled with soil. Trees and plants were planted on these terraces, which were created atop each other. One could reach the highest level of these terraces through the stairways within them.

The very idea of maintaining these sprawling gardens must have sent shivers down the spines of the people who built them. Not only did the city receive scant rainfall through out the year, getting water from the Euphrates was also difficult, as these gardens rose far above the river level. The task of providing and maintaining a regular source of water for irrigating these gardens proved to be an immensely difficult task.

A unique irrigation system was devised to solve the problem of keeping the gardens lush and green through out the year. This system comprised of a number of chain-pumps. These chain pumps were made up of two huge wheels. One of these wheels was located on the uppermost terrace of the garden, while the next one was located near the source of the water, from where the water for the irrigation was drawn out. Each of these wheels had a handle and shaft assembly, for turning them. Both these wheels were then connected by a chain, which had a number of buckets hanging from it. As soon as the wheel near the source of the water was turned, each successive bucket was filled with water. At the same time the slaves operating the upper wheel pulled the chain towards them. Slowly the water filled buckets reached the top level of each garden, where the slaves emptied them into channels, which spanned each and every level of the garden. Thus these extensive gardens were fed by water with the help of a mechanical system, which was powered by human muscle.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were not only a marvel of architecture but they also provided a spectacular sight to anyone who saw it. The irrigation system, which kept these gardens alive, was also a marvel in itself.