A History of Ancient Babylon
Babylon lay along the banks of the Euphrates in southern Mesopotamia, a Greek word meaning “between rivers.” As water made the name, so water defined the region. Mesopotamia does not receive enough rainfall to support crops, so civilization in the area couldn’t start until its people discovered irrigation around 6000 BC. From then on, things really began to grow.
First Glories
The Sumerians built the first great Mesopotamian civilization. While Babylon was still just a village, the Sumerians were busy inventing writing (a script known as cuneiform), establishing the first known code of law, and building the first potter’s wheel, sailboat, and seed plow.
Eventually, a Semitic tribe called the Amorites overthrew the Sumerians. Under the Amorite king Hammurabi (reigned circa 1792-1750 BC), Babylon became the center of a new empire, known as Babylonia. Today Hammurabi is best known for his famous code of laws, a list of 280 precedent-setting judgments on questions ranging from the correct punishment for murder to contractual issues surrounding wet-nursing.
After Hammurabi died, the Babylonian empire declined until it was overthrown by a new set of invaders: first the Hittites in 1595 BC, then the Kassites. Kassite rule, which lasted for 400 years, was in many ways the high point of Babylonian culture. Babylon’s priests even felt confident enough to declare Babylon’s hometown god, Marduk, top dog in the Mesopotamian pantheon.
Wondrous Gardens
In the late 12th century BC, however, the center of Mesopotamian political power passed out of Babylon, first to the Elamites in the east and then, a few centuries later, to the Assyrians in the north. For 200 years, Babylon was part of the Assyrian empire. In 689 BC, the Assyrian king destroyed Babylon, plundered and leveled its temples, and diverted the waters of a nearby canal over its ruins.
But it’s hard to keep a good city down. A new tribe, the Chaldeans, reoccupied Babylon and made it their capital. Under the leadership of their second king, Nebuchadnezzar II (reigned circa 605-561 BC), the city became the largest in the world, covering 2,500 acres and occupying both sides of the Euphrates River.
Nebuchadnezzar built the famous hanging gardens – one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – and rebuilt the temple of Marduk and its associated ziggurat (a temple style resembling a step pyramid). The massive ziggurat was 300 feet long on every side and 300 feet tall at its peak and may have served as inspiration for the Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel.
Down for the Count
After this period, Babylon’s best days were past. The great Persian emperor Cyrus conquered Babylonia in 539 BC, and two centuries later a Greek army under Alexander the Great grabbed Mesopotamia. Alexander intended to make Babylon the capital of his empire, but he died before that could happen. After Alexander’s death, the city’s Greek rulers abandoned it, and Babylon more or less closed up shop. Today it’s a heap of ruins, its glories all broken and buried in the sand.
