Hanging Gardens of Babylon

1. Hanging Gardens of Babylon

2. Seven Wonders of the World • The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (from left to right, top to bottom): Great Pyramid of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Temple of Artemis, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Mausoleum of Maussollos, Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

3. The Seven Wonders of the World (or the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) is a widely-known list of seven remarkable constructions of classical antiquity. It was based on guide-books popular among Hellenic sight-seers and only includes works located around the Mediterranean rim. Later lists include those for the Medieval World and the Modern World.

4. Wonder Date Builder Destroyed Cause Great Pyramid of Giza 2650-2500 BC Egyptians still standing N/A Hanging Gardens of Babylon 600 BC Babylonians after 1st century BC earthquake Temple of Artemis at Ephesus 550 BC Lydians, Persians, Greeks 356 BC fire Statue of Zeus at Olympia 435 BC Greeks 5th-6th centuries AD fire Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus 351 BC Persians, Greeks by 1494 AD earthquake Colossus of Rhodes 292-280 BC Hellenistic Greece 224 BC earthquake Lighthouse of Alexandria 3rd century BC Hellenistic Egypt 1303-1480 AD earthquake The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

5. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (also known as Hanging Gardens of Semiramis) and the walls of Babylon (present-day Iraq) were considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. They were both supposedly built by Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC.

6. Some circumstantial evidence gathered at the excavation of the palace at Babylon has accrued, but does not completely substantiate what look like fanciful descriptions. Through the ages, the location may have been confused with gardens that existed at Nineveh, since tablets from there clearly show gardens. Writings on these tablets describe the possible use of something similar to an Archimedes' screw as a process of raising the water to the required height.

7. Hanging Garden, Assyrian interpretation • A hanging garden, 21st century interpretation

8. Babylon • Babylon is the Greek variant of Akkadian Babilu (bāb-ilû,or Bab-Eili, meaning "Gateway of the god(s)", translating Sumerian Kadingirra), an ancient city in Mesopotamia (modern Al Hillah, Iraq).

9. It was the "holy city" of Babylonia from around 2300 BC, and the seat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 612 BC. In the Old Testament, the name appears as בבל (Babel), interpreted by Genesis 11:9 to mean "confusion", from the verb balal, "to confuse". Babylon is the Greek variant of Akkadian Babilu (bāb-ilû,or Bab-Eili, meaning "Gateway of the god(s)", translating Sumerian Kadingirra), an ancient city in Mesopotamia (modern Al Hillah, Iraq). It was the "holy city" of Babylonia from around 2300 BC, and the seat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 612 BC. In the Old Testament, the name appears as בבל (Babel), interpreted by Genesis 11:9 to mean "confusion", from the verb balal, "to confuse".

10. US Marines in front of the rebuilt ruins of Babylon (2003) • Historical knowledge of Babylon's topography is derived from classical writers, the inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar, and several excavations, including those of the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft begun in 1899. The layout is that of the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar; the older Babylon destroyed by Sennacherib having left few, if any, traces behind.