20.52
2,300-400- Babylon- The 'centre' of trade & wisdom
 
  Babylonian Bab-ilu, Old Babylonian Bab-ilim, Hebrew Bavel, or Babel, Arabic Atlal Babil, one of the most famous cities of antiquity. It was the capital of southern Mesopotamia (Babylonia) from the early 2nd millennium to the early 1st millennium BCE and capital of the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, when it was at the height of its splendor. Its extensive ruins on the Euphrates River about 55 miles (88 kilometres) south of Baghdad lie near the modern town of al-Hillah, Iraq.

 
   
  Though traces of prehistoric settlement exist, Babylon's development as a major city was late by Mesopotamian standards, no mention of it occurring before the 23rd century BC. After the fall of the 3rd dynasty of Ur, under which Babylon had been a provincial centre, it became the nucleus of a small kingdom established in 1894 BC by the Amorite king Sumuabum, whose successors consolidated its status. The sixth and best known of the Amorite dynasts, Hammurabi (1792-50 BC), conquered the surrounding city-states and raised Babylon to the capital of a kingdom comprising all southern Mesopotamia and part of Assyria (northern Iraq). Its political importance, together with its favorable geographical position, made it henceforth the main commercial and administrative centre of Babylonia, while its wealth and prestige made it a target for foreign conquerors.  
  The ancient city.  
  Evidence of the topography of ancient Babylon is provided by excavations, cuneiform texts, and descriptions by the 5th-century Greek historian Herodotus and other classical authors. The extensive rebuilding by Nebuchadrezzar has left relatively little archaeological data in the central area earlier than his time, while elsewhere the water table has limited excavation in early strata. The reports of Herodotus largely relate to the Babylon built by Nebuchadrezzar.

Nebuchadrezzar's Babylon was the largest city in the world, covering 2,500 acres (1,000 hectares). The Euphrates, which has since shifted its course, flowed through it, the older part of the city being on the east bank. There the central feature was Esagila, the great temple of Marduk, with its associated ziggurat (a tower built in several stages) Etemenanki. The latter, popularly known as the Tower of Babel, had a base 100 yards on a side, and its seven stages, the uppermost a temple in blue glaze, reached to a height of 300 feet (91 metres). Four other temples in the eastern half of the city are known from excavations and a larger number from texts. Along the Euphrates, particularly in the neighbourhood of Esagila, were quays for trading vessels, and textual evidence that Babylon was an entrepôt for trade with south Babylonia points to the existence of warehouses. The river was spanned by a bridge on brick piles, with stone capping, to the western half of the city. The streets were laid out on a grid, with the main axis parallel to the river. From Esagila northward passed the paved Processional Way, its walls decorated with enamelled lions. Passing through the Ishtar Gate, adorned with enamelled bulls and dragons, it led to the Akitu House, a small temple outside the city, visited by Marduk at the New Year festival. West of the Ishtar Gate, one of eight fortified gates, were two palace complexes that covered about 40 acres with their fortifications.

East of the Processional Way lay an area that since the time of Hammurabi had contained private dwellings built around central courtyards. A powerful double wall, reinforced by a fosse (ditch), enclosed the city on both sides of the Euphrates. Beyond the city walls to the east an outer rampart of triple construction, 11 miles long, met the Euphrates south and north of the city, at its northern junction enclosing another palace. Between the inner and outer defenses was irrigated land with a network of canals, some going back to the time of Hammurabi. Greek tradition refers to the Hanging Gardens.

  
     
     
 
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