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preface
Babylon, or "Gate of the Gods", was one of the most famous cities in the ancient Near East, and like many Mesopotamian cities, it has a long history.
Originally inhabited during the early dynastic period, Babylon began to prominence during the reign of Hammurabi in the 18th century BC.
However, in the middle of the Iron Age, Babylon was the immortal capital that controlled the kingdoms of central and southern Mesopotamia.
The physical appearance of this city from the 7th to 6th centuries BC continues some of the long-standing traditions of southern Mesopotamian urbanism.
But it also shows new characteristics, especially in contrast to the Neo-Assyrian cities of northern Mesopotamia.
Background of the times
During the Iron Age, the kingdom of Babylon experienced a turbulent relationship with the Assyrians in the north.
The city was destroyed by Sinakiri in 689 BC, but was largely rebuilt by his son Isaac Haton (ruled 680–669 BC).
When the Assyrians fell in 612 BC, the victorious Medes turned their attention northward, leaving behind the Babylonian masters of central and southern Mesopotamia.
Under the rule of Naporassa and Nebucaresa (ruled 604-562 BC), the Neo-Babylonians restored their cities.
Special emphasis was placed on temples: they revitalized trade networks, and they fought against neighboring countries that threatened their prosperity.
The capital, Babylon, was established as a political, cultural, intellectual and religious center.
Later rulers proved to be the weak, charming intellectual Naponidos, who ascended the throne in 556 BC.
Unfortunately a contemporary of Cyrus the Great, the dynamic king of Persian expansion.
By 539 BC, the Persians had surrounded Babylonia to the north and east, controlling large swathes of territory from the Aegean Sea to Afghanistan.
When the Persians attacked Babylon, the Babylonian army led by Belshazar, son of Naponidus, collapsed, the Persians peacefully occupied the large city, and thus ended the last independent state of ancient Mesopotamia.
urban planning
The Neo-Babylonian city was discovered from the explorations of the ancient writers Babylon and the Greeks, especially the historian Herodotus.
From 1899 to 1917, German archaeologist Robert Köldwey carried out major excavations.
Due to the high water table, Coduwe was unable to reach the early levels of Hammurabi, so he had to concentrate on the plans of the Neo-Babylonians.
With the exception of the Ishtarmen, these ancient buildings are not very well preserved, and by the Seleucid (Greek) era, baked bricks have been used elsewhere in the construction project.
However, reconstruction work has been carried out in recent decades as part of excavations carried out by the General Directorate of Antiquities of Iraq.
Covering an area of 850 hectares, Great Babylon was the largest city in ancient Mesopotamia, larger than Nineveh (750 ha) and much larger than your (60 ha).
The city consisted of two defensive parts, one inside the other, and the Euphrates River running north-south, which was an important part of this defensive system.
The outermost fortifications are a huge triangle with the Euphrates itself on one side, and the other two legs extending eastward by a three-row wall and a moat.
Inside this triangle there is a rectangular core, the city center, defended separately.
An integral part of this is the city center, home to the city's main monuments: the Royal Palace, the cult center, and the old residential area.
The rectangular core of Babylon began as a fortified square on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, an area extended to the west bank by Nebu Kaza.
The fortification consisted of a double-lined mud-brick wall with a thickness of 6.5 meters inside and 3.7 meters outside, and the gap between them was used as a road.
The outer wall of the wall had a moat, connected to the Euphrates, with iron bars to prevent invasion.
The baked bricks are set on a sealant asphalt reinforced wall, in contact with water, and the bridge is the passage to the eight doors into the city.
The city is arranged in a grid with straight streets facing the river, a regular layout unusual for a city in central or southern Mesopotamia.
There are several streets whose names are known, listed on stone slabs along with neighborhoods, many cult sites, and other topographical features, and whose names are striking.
Private homes follow the traditional Mesopotamian style: two to three floors with a courtyard in the middle.
The oversized size of these houses, as well as contemporary examples in Uruk and your, show the prosperity of the region in the 6th century BC.
The Babylonian city plan, unlike the typical Neo-Assyrian urban layout, was in the restoration of the main religious buildings to a prominent place.
Of course, these palaces are all magnificent, but occupying the center of the city are the Marduk temples and temples, not the palaces, which sit on the edge of the inner city, respectively.
In contrast to the Neo-Assyrian practice, the religious center and palace areas were not raised, but were located on the same plane as the rest of the city.
Parade Road and Marduk Temple
The passage to the religious center is a procession route that starts outside the gate of the North Ishi Pagoda
During the New Year, the route follows the image of the gods in March or April.
The street leads to the gate between the high walls of the North Palace and the fortress opposite, decorated with glazed statues of lions, symbols of the Tower of Ish, the goddess of love and war.
The preservation of the Gate of the Tower of Isita is strange, and the third and final version of Nebuchasa, decorated with glazed bricks, has barely survived in the paved streets.
However, the foundation of the gate descends 15 meters underground and is buried in clean sand as a sacred building.
and decorated with austere brick reliefs depicting dragons and bulls, respectively, symbols of the gods Marduk and Adad.
It was these cleaned walls that visitors see today that provided the basis for the reconstruction of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
The original gate may have been more than 23 meters in height that could be measured, spanning the inner and outer fortification walls, as shown by the Berlin reconstruction.
The gate and adjacent walls have lions, bulls and dragons, made of colored glazed bricks, sometimes flat, sometimes in relief, set against a bright blue background.
The procession continues south from the Ishtamen and the palace, crossing a large canal that leads to Etmenaki, a compound containing pyramids.
This pyramid is the Old Testament Tower of Babel, but has been rebuilt several times, and unfortunately this structure is preserved only on its foundation.
91 million square meters, but it's undoubtedly a lot like a pyramid that's better preserved elsewhere.
According to Herodotus' description, it was an eight-step tower with a temple at the top.
This room is equipped with a large sofa where the god Marduk would sleep, next to a golden table, and the guard task was entrusted to a woman.
Then the street turns west, towards the Euphrates River and the West Bank, which passes between Etmenangi and Essagira, the "Temple of Heads Up", the main deity of the city.
The plan to restore E-sangil caused problems for the German excavator because it was buried under the ruins of a 21-meter later settlement, an Islamic holy site according to the religious tradition of the place.
The temple was luckily struck when the deep test pit at Corduwe hit the floor paved with inscriptions.
Through a tunnel along the wall, the workers restored its dimensions: 86 meters × 78 meters, with two outer courtyards to the east.
There are few details inside, and according to Herodotus, the temple contained an idol of a seated deity, a table, a throne and a pedestal, all golden, but these precious objects left no trace.
The southern palace of Nebucha Essa
Nebu Gassa had three main palaces, and the huge Forbidden City was built on a high platform built with baked bricks.
In planning, it resembles the Assyrian type, with public and private rooms grouped around a rectilinear courtyard, where there are five quantities, arranged on one axis.
The rectangular throne room, outside the largest courtyard, is accessed from the long side by three doorways.
This palace and even this room, we can imagine was the site of the feast of Bershasa and, 200 years later, the death of Alexander the Great.
The façade of the throne room was decorated with glazed brick with geometric patterns, trees and animals, and in contrast to the Assyrians, the Neo-Babylonians did not set stone aligners in the room or protect the entrance with huge guard shields.
In fact, aside from glazed bricks, the ruins of Babylon from the 6th century BC achieved little in terms of art or craftsmanship.
However, the text tells us that the room is decorated with delicate wood, inlaid with bronze or gold.
In the northeasternmost direction of the palace, there is a confusing 14 small arched storage chambers surrounded by an unusually thick wall with a unique well consisting of three adjacent shafts, seemingly designed to drag water with buckets on the chain.
These rooms may have been the basis for the famous Sky Garden, a kind of lavish penthouse garden.
According to the third-century BC historian Berosus, Nebucareza built these gardens to satisfy his middle wife's desire for the forest of her northern home.
This achievement impressed the Greeks, who listed the Hanging Garden as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Author's opinion:
Many of these construction projects required significant manpower, which was largely provided by foreign laborers, skilled and unskilled, who were brought to Babylon after the victorious campaign.
Expulsion of people was common in the ancient Near East as a way to reduce the likelihood of rebellion.
The Hebrews, exiled to Babylon after capturing Jerusalem in 586 BC, were not the only ones in trouble.
But often, after the completion of a particular project, these foreigners are allowed to live in better conditions, own land, and rise in social status.
These projects also require a lot of money, but it's not that easy to find.
By the mid-6th century BC, the economy of Babylon was under strain, as the conquered territories no longer contributed at the previous level.
The resulting pressure on the population may have been an important factor in favor of the invading Persians and Cyrus the Great.
Bibliography:
A new exploration of the reasons for the demise of the Third Dynasty in the Two Rivers Basin[J]. LIU Changyu. Journal of Zhejiang Normal University (Social Science Edition). 2018(05)
State governance structure of ancient Mesopotamia[J]. YU Dianli. Academic research. 2014(01)