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The
Kings
Babylon became an independent city-state by
1894 BC, when the Amorites founded a
dynasty there. This dynasty
reached its greatness under King Hammurabi. He was the 6th
successor of
the first dynasty of Babylon, which was Amorite.
Nabopolassar founded the
Neo-Babylonian dynasty, and his son Nebuchadnezzar II
expanded the kingdom
until it became an empire embracing much of southwest Asia.
The imperial capital at
Babylon was refurbished with new temple and palace buildings,
extensive
fortification walls and gates, and paved processional ways; it was at that
time,
the largest city of the known world, covering more than 1000
hectares (some 2500 acres).
The Neo-Babylonian Empire was
of short duration. In 539 BC, Cyrus the Great captured
Babylon and
incorporated Babylonia into the newly founded Persian Empire.
Under the Persians, Babylon
for a time served as the official residence of the crown prince,
until a
local revolt in 482 led Xerxes I, to raze the temples and ziggurat (temple
tower) and
to melt down the statue of the patron god Marduk.
Alexander the Great captured
the city in 330 BC, and planned to rebuild it and make it the
capital of
his vast empire, but he died before he could carry out his plans. After
312 BC,
Babylon was for a while used as a capital by the Seleucid dynasty
set up by Alexander's
successors.
When the new capital of
Seleucia on the Tigris was founded in the early 3rd century BC,
however,
most of Babylon's population was moved there.
The temples continued in use
for a time, but the city became insignificant and almost
disappeared
before the coming of Islam in the 7th century AD.
Topography
At that time the
Euphrates divided the city into two unequal parts-the old quarter, with
most of the palaces and temples, on the east bank, and the New City on the
West bank.
A prominent place near the
center of the city was occupied by Esagila, the temple of
Marduk; just to
the north of that was Etemenanki (the ziggurat), a seven-storied temple
edifice, linked with the mysterious "Tower of Babel", which guarded
the "Shem" or "fiery
rockets", used by the Sumerian and Anunnaki gods to traverse the heavens.
A cluster of palaces and
fortifications were found at the northwest corner of the old city;
the
German excavators identified one ruin in this area with the foundations of
the
"Hanging Gardens", one of the Seven Wonders of the World, which
Nebuchadnezzar II built .
Nearby was located the "Ishtar Gate", with its
lions and dragons in brightly colored glazed
brick.
Through it passed the main Processional Way,
the route followed by cultic and political
leaders for the New Year's festival ceremonies. Through nine major gates
of the
massive inner fortification walls passed roads to the principal
settlements of Babylonia.
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