Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Many ideas about the structure and location of the gardens continue. A study of the historical significance of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, has led Oxford historians to conclude that the foundations of the great Assyrian Empire Sennacherib, whose palace was a major rival of Babylon in Nineveh, show trees growing on the balcony of Babylon. Layard painter hired by bass authorized by Dr. Dalley, who imitated gardens and produced Layard's book Nineveh, published in London in 1853.

Berossus of Caldea, a priest who lived in the late 4th century BC, gave the only written description of the gardens. Many ancient Greek historians wrote of what they thought the gardens looked like before they were destroyed. The hanging gardens of Babylon are an ancient garden that is considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world and is probably located in the royal court of Babylon.

Archaeologists and historians have examined the condition of Babylon since then, but they have not found any evidence of the existence of the Hanging Gardens in Babylon, leading some to consider it a myth. At the beginning of the 21st century, the location of the gardens is not yet clear. It is one of the seven ancient wonders of the world called "The Hanging Gardens" because they were built on the ground and found on the heights of stone libraries.

The Babylonian hanging gardens of Babylon were the product of the ferocious mind of Greek scholars and poets who boasted of bringing troops back to the east bank of the Euphrates, 31 miles [31 km] south of Baghdad in Iraq. With its blossoming flowers, ripe fruit, flowing waterfalls, lush green fields, and exotic creatures it was the ideal view of returning soldiers. Greek historian and geographer described the state of the gardens hanging in the 16th volume of a 17-volume series on the landscape of the Middle East and much to learn about the world during the reigns of the first two Roman emperors, Augustus and Tiberius. Philo saw that plants were planted from the ground up and that the roots of the trees in the upper parts of the garden were as deep as the ground.

According to legend, the gardens were erected for his middle wife, Queen Amytis, in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon who ruled from 605 to 562 BC when he was lost in the green hills and valleys of his homeland. This is attested to by the Babylonian priest Berossus, who wrote about 290 BC, in a commentary quoted by Josephus. The stone tablets from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar give a detailed description of Babylon's city and its walls and palaces, but they do not refer to gardens.

Historically, gardens hanging from Babylon were built in Iraq by King Nebuchadnezzar II and his wife, Queen Amytis. The construction of these gardens came from the famous Queen Semiramis who ruled Babylon in the ninth century, and they were named after her "Hanging Walls," another name. Another popular view is that gardens were made by the king to please his wife.

Today, our garden knowledge is based on the translation of ancient accounts and artistic portraits of the site. Ironically, King Nebuchadnezzar did not mention gardens. This has led some scholars to suggest that the gardens were originally built by the Assyrian queen Sennacherib, ruler of Nineveh.

From the magnificent portraits of the Colossus of Rhodes by the sea to the magnificent pyramids of Giza, some of the ancient wonders that fascinate me include the hanging gardens of Babylon. It was the hanging gardens, the first of the seven wonders of the world described by Sanherib himself and referred to in his palace gardens built around 700 BC, which was a miracle of man. Such gardens had watering cans, high walls that provided shade, trees gathered together to retain their precious moisture and to withstand hot air, and they were often close to many water sources.

The discovery of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the hanging gardens of Babylon, is one of the great mysteries of ancient times. The archaeological failure of the archaeologists to identify the hanging gardens of Babylon or its ancient remains has led some to question its existence. Some scholars suggest that the gardens were not located in Babylon but were in Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, while others cling to ancient writers and expect good evidence from archeology.

Dalley has found a great deal of confusion about names and places in ancient writings, including the book Judith, which puzzled two kings. The Northern Assyrian city of Nineveh, formerly known as New Babylon, also caused confusion.

They are not mentioned in the writings of Babylonian Governor Nebuchadnezzar and his wife, Amyitis. In the first century AD, a well-known Roman philosopher named Josephus, who was known for his poor moral standards, told a story 600 years ago about the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon.

As the daughter of the king of Persia, his long-lost wife Amytis missed the jungles of her youth in the mountains, so King Nebuchadnezzar II built her a desert, a structure adorned with unusual trees planted like a mountain. Some 600 years later, in the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, he built a high tunnel supported by stone pillars and planted what came to be called a retirement paradise, filling it with trees he had promised to resemble a mountainous country.