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Babylon

Babylon was an important city in ancient Mesopotamia located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was divided evenly along the banks of the Euphrates, with walls containing seasonal floods. Babylon began as a small Akkadian city but grew to eclipse Nippur as the main religious center after Hammurabi created the first Babylonian Empire in the 18th century BC. At its height between the 18th-7th centuries BC, Babylon was one of the largest and most influential cities in the world, but it later declined under successive empires until becoming a provincial center.

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Corina Taraș-Lungu
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31 views

Babylon

Babylon was an important city in ancient Mesopotamia located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was divided evenly along the banks of the Euphrates, with walls containing seasonal floods. Babylon began as a small Akkadian city but grew to eclipse Nippur as the main religious center after Hammurabi created the first Babylonian Empire in the 18th century BC. At its height between the 18th-7th centuries BC, Babylon was one of the largest and most influential cities in the world, but it later declined under successive empires until becoming a provincial center.

Uploaded by

Corina Taraș-Lungu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Babylon (Akkadian: Bbili or Babilim; Arabic: , Bbil) was a significant city in

ancient Mesopotamia, in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was
built upon the Euphrates and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep
embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods. Babylon was originally a
small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c. 2300 BC.
The town attained independence as part of a small city state with the rise of the
First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BC. Claiming to be the successor of the more
ancient Sumero-Akkadian city of Eridu, Babylon eclipsed Nippur as the "holy city" of
Mesopotamia around the time Amorite king Hammurabi created the first short lived Babylonian
Empire in the 18th century BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known
as Babylonia.
The empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabi's death and Babylon spent long periods
under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the
Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the
fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rules of
the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid empires.
It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from c. 1770 to 1670 BC, and
again between c. 612 and 320 BC. It was perhaps the first city to reach a population above
200,000.[2] Estimates for the maximum extent of its area range from 890 [3] to 900 hectares (2,200
acres).[4] The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85
kilometers (53 mi) south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and
debris.

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