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The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is the only one whose location has not been definitively established.
The Hanging Gardens were a distinctive feature of ancient Babylon. They were a great source of pride to the people. Possibly built by King Nebuchadnezzar II in 600 BC, the gardens are believed to have been a remarkable feat of engineering: an ascending series of tiered gardens containing all manner of trees, shrubs, and vines. The gardens were said to have looked like a large green mountain constructed of mud bricks.
Traditionally they were said to have been built in the ancient city of Babylon, near present-day Hillah, Babil province, in Iraq. The Babylonian priest Berossus, writing in about 290 BC and quoted later by Josephus, attributed the gardens to the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled between 605 and 562 BC. There are no extant Babylonian texts which mention the gardens, and no definitive archaeological evidence has been found in Babylon.
According to one legend, Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens for his Median wife, Queen Amytis, because she missed the green hills and valleys of her homeland. He also built a grand palace that came to be known as 'The Marvel of the Mankind'.
Because of the lack of evidence it has been suggested that the Hanging Gardens are purely mythical, and the descriptions found in ancient Greek and Roman writers including Strabo, Diodorus Siculus and Quintus Curtius Rufus represent a romantic ideal of an eastern garden.If it did indeed exist, it was destroyed sometime after the first century AD.
Alternatively, the original garden may have been a well-documented one that the Assyrian king Sennacherib (704–681 BC) built in his capital city of Nineveh on the River Tigris, near the modern city of Mosul.
This copy of a bas relief from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal (669–631 BC) at Nineveh shows a luxurious garden watered by an aqueduct.
There is some controversy as to whether the Hanging Gardens were an actual construction or a poetic creation, owing to the lack of documentation in contemporaneous Babylonian sources. There is also no mention of Nebuchadnezzar's wife Amyitis (or any other wives), although a political marriage to a Median or Persian would not have been unusual. Herodotus, writing about Babylon closest in time to Nebuchadnezzar II, does not mention the Hanging Gardens in his Histories.
To date, no archaeological evidence has been found at Babylon for the Hanging Gardens.It is possible that evidence exists beneath the Euphrates, which cannot be excavated safely at present. The river flowed east of its current position during the time of Nebuchadnezzar II, and little is known about the western portion of Babylon.Rollinger has suggested that Berossus attributed the Gardens to Nebuchadnezzar for political reasons, and that he had adopted the legend from elsewhere.
A recent theory proposes that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were actually constructed by the Assyrian king Sennacherib (reigned 704 – 681 BC) for his palace at Nineveh. Stephanie Dalley posits that during the intervening centuries the two sites became confused, and the extensive gardens at Sennacherib's palace were attributed to Nebuchadnezzar II's Babylon.Recently discovered evidence includes excavation of a vast system of aqueducts inscribed to Sennacherib, which Dalley proposes were part of a 50-mile (80 km) series of canals, dams, aqueducts, used to carry water to Nineveh with water-raising screws used to raise it to the upper levels of the gardens.
Dalley bases her arguments on recent developments in the decipherment of contemporary Akkadian inscriptions. Her main points are:
The name "Babylon", meaning "Gate of the Gods" was applied to several Mesopotamian cities.Sennacherib renamed the city gates of Nineveh after gods,which suggests that he wished his city to be considered "a Babylon".
Only Josephus names Nebuchadnezzar as the king who built the gardens, but although Nebuchadnezzar left many inscriptions none mentions any garden or engineering works.Diodorus Siculus and Quintus Curtius Rufus specify a "Syrian" king.
By contrast Sennacherib left written descriptions and there is archaeological evidence of his water engineering.His grandson Assurbanipal pictured the mature garden on a sculptured wall panel in his palace.
Sennacherib called his new palace and garden "a wonder for all peoples". He describes the making and operation of screws to raise water in his garden.
The descriptions of the classical authors fit closely to these contemporary records. Before the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC Alexander the Great camped for four days near the aqueduct at Jerwan.The historians who travelled with him would have had ample time to investigate the enormous works around them, recording them in Greek. These first-hand accounts do not survive into our times, but were quoted by later Greek writers.
King Sennacherib's Hanging Garden was considered a World Wonder not just for its beauty – a year-round oasis of lush green in a dusty summer landscape – but also for the marvellous feats of water engineering that maintained the garden.
There was a tradition of Assyrian royal garden building. King Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) describes what he had done:
"I dug out a canal from the (river) Upper Zab, cutting through a mountain peak, and called it the Abundance Canal. I watered the meadows of the Tigris and planted orchards with all kinds of fruit trees in the vicinity. I planted seeds and plants that I had found in the countries through which I had marched and in the highlands which I had crossed: pines of different kinds, cypresses and junipers of different kinds, almonds, dates, ebony, rosewood, olive, oak, tamarisk, walnut, terebinth and ash, fir, pomegranate, pear, quince, fig, grapevine.... The canal water gushes from above into the garden; fragrance pervades the walkways, streams of water as numerous as the stars of heaven flow in the pleasure garden.... Like a squirrel I pick fruit in the garden of delights..."
Sennacherib is the only Mesopotamian king who has left a record of his love for his wife – a key part of the romantic classical story:
"And for Tashmetu-sharrat the palace woman, my beloved wife, whose features the Mistress of the Gods has made perfect above all other women, I had a palace of loveliness, delight and joy built..."
Sennacherib's palace was comparable in size to Windsor Castle in England. He specifically mentions the massive limestone blocks that reinforce the flood defences. Parts of the palace were excavated by Austin Henry Layard in the mid-19th century. His citadel plan shows contours which would be consistent with Sennacherib's garden, but its position has not been confirmed. The area has been used as a military base in recent times, making it difficult to investigate further.
A sculptured wall panel of Assurbanipal shows the garden in its maturity. There is one original panel and the drawing of another in the British Museum, although neither is on public display. Several features mentioned by the classical authors are discernible on these contemporary images.
The irrigation of such a garden demanded an upgraded water supply to the city of Nineveh. The canals stretched over 50 km into the mountains. Sennacherib was proud of the technologies he had employed, and describes them in some detail on his inscriptions. For example:
At the headwater of Bavian (Khinnis) his inscription mentions automatic sluice gates but does not say how they worked:
"The sluice gate of that canal opens without a spade or a shovel and lets the waters of abundance flow.: its sluice gate is not opened by the labour of men's hands, but by the will of the gods."
An enormous aqueduct crossing the valley at Jerwan was constructed of over 2 million dressed stones. It used stone arches and waterproof cement. On it is written:
"Sennacherib king of the world king of Assyria. Over a great distance I had a watercourse directed to the environs of Nineveh, joining together the waters.... Over steep-sided valleys I spanned an aqueduct of white limestone blocks, I made those waters flow over it."
He claims to be the first to deploy a new casting technique in place of the "lost-wax" process for his monumental (30 tonne) bronze castings, and describes the making of his water screws (though once again he does not say exactly how they were driven):
"Whereas in former times the kings my forefathers had created bronze statues imitating real-life forms to put on display inside temples, but in their method of work they had exhausted all the craftsmen, for lack of skill and failure to understand the principles they needed so much oil, wax and tallow for the work that they caused a shortage in their own countries – I Sennacherib, leader of all princes, knowledgeable in all kinds of work, took much advice and deep thought over doing that kind of work.... I created clay moulds as if by divine intelligence for cylinders and screws... In order to draw up water all day long, I had ropes, bronze wires and bronze chains made. And instead of a shaduf I set up the cylinders and screws of copper over cisterns....I raised the height of the surroundings of the palace, to be a Wonder for all Peoples... A high garden imitating the Amanus mountains I laid out next to it, with all kinds of aromatic plants, orchard fruit trees, trees that enrich not only mountain country but also Chaldea (Babylonia), as well as trees that bear wool, planted within it"
Sennacherib could bring the water into his garden at a high level because it was sourced from further up the mountains. He then raised the water even higher by deploying his new water screws. This meant he could build a garden that towered into the sky with large trees on the top of the terraces – a stunning artistic effect that surpassed those of his predecessors and which justifies his own claim to have built a "Wonder for all Peoples".
The gardens were believed to have been built in Babylon because of its name. However, the Assyrian capital of Nineveh was known as New Babylon, and this may have been where the confusion arose. Ancient texts written by Assyrian leader Sennacherib made reference to a 'wonder' garden
source-internet
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is the only one whose location has not been definitively established.
The Hanging Gardens were a distinctive feature of ancient Babylon. They were a great source of pride to the people. Possibly built by King Nebuchadnezzar II in 600 BC, the gardens are believed to have been a remarkable feat of engineering: an ascending series of tiered gardens containing all manner of trees, shrubs, and vines. The gardens were said to have looked like a large green mountain constructed of mud bricks.
Traditionally they were said to have been built in the ancient city of Babylon, near present-day Hillah, Babil province, in Iraq. The Babylonian priest Berossus, writing in about 290 BC and quoted later by Josephus, attributed the gardens to the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled between 605 and 562 BC. There are no extant Babylonian texts which mention the gardens, and no definitive archaeological evidence has been found in Babylon.
According to one legend, Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens for his Median wife, Queen Amytis, because she missed the green hills and valleys of her homeland. He also built a grand palace that came to be known as 'The Marvel of the Mankind'.
Because of the lack of evidence it has been suggested that the Hanging Gardens are purely mythical, and the descriptions found in ancient Greek and Roman writers including Strabo, Diodorus Siculus and Quintus Curtius Rufus represent a romantic ideal of an eastern garden.If it did indeed exist, it was destroyed sometime after the first century AD.
Alternatively, the original garden may have been a well-documented one that the Assyrian king Sennacherib (704–681 BC) built in his capital city of Nineveh on the River Tigris, near the modern city of Mosul.
Scholarship and controversy
This copy of a bas relief from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal (669–631 BC) at Nineveh shows a luxurious garden watered by an aqueduct.
There is some controversy as to whether the Hanging Gardens were an actual construction or a poetic creation, owing to the lack of documentation in contemporaneous Babylonian sources. There is also no mention of Nebuchadnezzar's wife Amyitis (or any other wives), although a political marriage to a Median or Persian would not have been unusual. Herodotus, writing about Babylon closest in time to Nebuchadnezzar II, does not mention the Hanging Gardens in his Histories.
To date, no archaeological evidence has been found at Babylon for the Hanging Gardens.It is possible that evidence exists beneath the Euphrates, which cannot be excavated safely at present. The river flowed east of its current position during the time of Nebuchadnezzar II, and little is known about the western portion of Babylon.Rollinger has suggested that Berossus attributed the Gardens to Nebuchadnezzar for political reasons, and that he had adopted the legend from elsewhere.
A recent theory proposes that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were actually constructed by the Assyrian king Sennacherib (reigned 704 – 681 BC) for his palace at Nineveh. Stephanie Dalley posits that during the intervening centuries the two sites became confused, and the extensive gardens at Sennacherib's palace were attributed to Nebuchadnezzar II's Babylon.Recently discovered evidence includes excavation of a vast system of aqueducts inscribed to Sennacherib, which Dalley proposes were part of a 50-mile (80 km) series of canals, dams, aqueducts, used to carry water to Nineveh with water-raising screws used to raise it to the upper levels of the gardens.
Dalley bases her arguments on recent developments in the decipherment of contemporary Akkadian inscriptions. Her main points are:
The name "Babylon", meaning "Gate of the Gods" was applied to several Mesopotamian cities.Sennacherib renamed the city gates of Nineveh after gods,which suggests that he wished his city to be considered "a Babylon".
Only Josephus names Nebuchadnezzar as the king who built the gardens, but although Nebuchadnezzar left many inscriptions none mentions any garden or engineering works.Diodorus Siculus and Quintus Curtius Rufus specify a "Syrian" king.
By contrast Sennacherib left written descriptions and there is archaeological evidence of his water engineering.His grandson Assurbanipal pictured the mature garden on a sculptured wall panel in his palace.
Sennacherib called his new palace and garden "a wonder for all peoples". He describes the making and operation of screws to raise water in his garden.
The descriptions of the classical authors fit closely to these contemporary records. Before the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC Alexander the Great camped for four days near the aqueduct at Jerwan.The historians who travelled with him would have had ample time to investigate the enormous works around them, recording them in Greek. These first-hand accounts do not survive into our times, but were quoted by later Greek writers.
The Hanging Garden at Nineveh ("another Babylon")
King Sennacherib's Hanging Garden was considered a World Wonder not just for its beauty – a year-round oasis of lush green in a dusty summer landscape – but also for the marvellous feats of water engineering that maintained the garden.
There was a tradition of Assyrian royal garden building. King Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) describes what he had done:
"I dug out a canal from the (river) Upper Zab, cutting through a mountain peak, and called it the Abundance Canal. I watered the meadows of the Tigris and planted orchards with all kinds of fruit trees in the vicinity. I planted seeds and plants that I had found in the countries through which I had marched and in the highlands which I had crossed: pines of different kinds, cypresses and junipers of different kinds, almonds, dates, ebony, rosewood, olive, oak, tamarisk, walnut, terebinth and ash, fir, pomegranate, pear, quince, fig, grapevine.... The canal water gushes from above into the garden; fragrance pervades the walkways, streams of water as numerous as the stars of heaven flow in the pleasure garden.... Like a squirrel I pick fruit in the garden of delights..."
Sennacherib is the only Mesopotamian king who has left a record of his love for his wife – a key part of the romantic classical story:
"And for Tashmetu-sharrat the palace woman, my beloved wife, whose features the Mistress of the Gods has made perfect above all other women, I had a palace of loveliness, delight and joy built..."
Sennacherib's palace was comparable in size to Windsor Castle in England. He specifically mentions the massive limestone blocks that reinforce the flood defences. Parts of the palace were excavated by Austin Henry Layard in the mid-19th century. His citadel plan shows contours which would be consistent with Sennacherib's garden, but its position has not been confirmed. The area has been used as a military base in recent times, making it difficult to investigate further.
A sculptured wall panel of Assurbanipal shows the garden in its maturity. There is one original panel and the drawing of another in the British Museum, although neither is on public display. Several features mentioned by the classical authors are discernible on these contemporary images.
The irrigation of such a garden demanded an upgraded water supply to the city of Nineveh. The canals stretched over 50 km into the mountains. Sennacherib was proud of the technologies he had employed, and describes them in some detail on his inscriptions. For example:
At the headwater of Bavian (Khinnis) his inscription mentions automatic sluice gates but does not say how they worked:
"The sluice gate of that canal opens without a spade or a shovel and lets the waters of abundance flow.: its sluice gate is not opened by the labour of men's hands, but by the will of the gods."
An enormous aqueduct crossing the valley at Jerwan was constructed of over 2 million dressed stones. It used stone arches and waterproof cement. On it is written:
"Sennacherib king of the world king of Assyria. Over a great distance I had a watercourse directed to the environs of Nineveh, joining together the waters.... Over steep-sided valleys I spanned an aqueduct of white limestone blocks, I made those waters flow over it."
He claims to be the first to deploy a new casting technique in place of the "lost-wax" process for his monumental (30 tonne) bronze castings, and describes the making of his water screws (though once again he does not say exactly how they were driven):
"Whereas in former times the kings my forefathers had created bronze statues imitating real-life forms to put on display inside temples, but in their method of work they had exhausted all the craftsmen, for lack of skill and failure to understand the principles they needed so much oil, wax and tallow for the work that they caused a shortage in their own countries – I Sennacherib, leader of all princes, knowledgeable in all kinds of work, took much advice and deep thought over doing that kind of work.... I created clay moulds as if by divine intelligence for cylinders and screws... In order to draw up water all day long, I had ropes, bronze wires and bronze chains made. And instead of a shaduf I set up the cylinders and screws of copper over cisterns....I raised the height of the surroundings of the palace, to be a Wonder for all Peoples... A high garden imitating the Amanus mountains I laid out next to it, with all kinds of aromatic plants, orchard fruit trees, trees that enrich not only mountain country but also Chaldea (Babylonia), as well as trees that bear wool, planted within it"
Sennacherib could bring the water into his garden at a high level because it was sourced from further up the mountains. He then raised the water even higher by deploying his new water screws. This meant he could build a garden that towered into the sky with large trees on the top of the terraces – a stunning artistic effect that surpassed those of his predecessors and which justifies his own claim to have built a "Wonder for all Peoples".
The gardens were believed to have been built in Babylon because of its name. However, the Assyrian capital of Nineveh was known as New Babylon, and this may have been where the confusion arose. Ancient texts written by Assyrian leader Sennacherib made reference to a 'wonder' garden
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon: Originally believed to have been built around 600 BC near Hillah, in the Babylon Province of Iraq, Dr Dalley's research pinpoints its whereabouts 350 miles north in the the ancient city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, also known as 'New Babylon.'
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus: Built c. 550 BC near Selçuk in the Izmir Province of Turkey, it was a Greek temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis.
Statue of Zeus at Olympia: The temple was said to have been built between 466 and 456 BC while the statue itself was believed to have been added in 435 BC. Ancient reports claim it was a giant seated figure, believed to be around 43 ft tall, built by the Greek sculptor Phidias.
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus: Built in 351 BC in modern-day Bodrum, Turkey, it was a tomb built for Mausolus, a governor from the Persian Empire.
Colossus of Rhodes: Built between 292 and 280 BC in Rhodes, Greece, it was a statue of the Greek Titan Helios.
Lighthouse of Alexandria: Built around 280 BC in Alexandria, Egypt it was tower said to be 450ft tall, making it one of the tallest man-made structures for many centuries.
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