Stacey Jacobs, age 14, of Twin Falls, Ida., for her question:
WHERE WAS THE CITY OF BABYLON?
Babylon was one of the greatest and most important cities of the ancient world and the capital of the old empire of Babylonia in the second and first millennia B.C. Today its location is marked by a broad area of ruins just east of the Euphrates River, 56 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq. The city of Al Hillah now stands on the site.
In ancient times the city prospered because it was located astride the main overland trade route connecting the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. Babylon means "gate of god" and the city was the religious center of Babylonia.
All that remains of the grand ancient city today are crumbled mounds. But scholars have learned much about Babylon from the ruins and relics found there.
Babylon formed a huge square and the Euphrates River divided it in half. The city was surrounded by big walls decorated with blue glazed brick and pictures of mythical animals. People entered and left the city through bronze gates.
Some of the most beautiful temples of the ancient world were found in the splendid city of Babylon. The most impressive buildings were the palaces of the kings and the huge temple of Bel Marduk, the patron god of Babylon.
Ziggurat, the great Tower of Babel, stood in the temple area. Babel was the Biblical word for Babylon. Not far from this tower were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which the ancient Greeks described as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The gardens grew on the roof of a vaulted building and provided a cool, shady place where people could get away from the heat.
Babylon first became an important city about 2000 B.C. Later it was ruled by the Hittites, Kassites and the Elamites. The Assyrian Empire ruled Babylon from about 745 to 639 B.C. The people revolted against the Assyrians. The revolt was crushed but the city was destroyed.
Eleven years after Babylon was destroyed the city was rebuilt. After the fall of Assyria, Babylon again became an independent city.
Under Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled from 605 to 562 B.C., Babylon became more splendid than ever. But in 550 B.C., religious disputes and military pressures weakened the rule of King Nabonidus. While he was in Arabia, Nabonidus gave control of his empire to his son Belshazzar. Then, according to the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament, mysterious handwriting appeared to Belshazzar on the palace wall, warning of the fall of Babylon.
The Persians captured Babylon in 539 B.C. Later King Xerxes I of Persia destroyed part of the city to punish the people for continued rebellions. Alexander the Great captured the city in 331 B.C. and after his death, his general Seleucus, became king and moved the capital to Seleucia. By the 200s A.D., Babylon had fallen into ruins.
In the 1200s, Arabs used bricks from the ruins of ancient Babylon to build A1 Hillah.
During recent years, Iraqi government reconstructed one of Babylon's gates and part of the Hanging Gardens.