On the east bank of the River Euphrates, about 50 km south of
Baghdad, Iraq.
The Babylonian kingdom flourished under the rule of the famous
King, Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC). It was not until the reign of Naboplashar (625-605
BC) of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty that the Mesopotamian civilization reached
its ultimate glory. His son, Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC) is credited for
building the legendary Hanging Gardens. It is said that the Gardens were built
by Nebuchadnezzar to please his wife or concubine who had been "brought
up in Media and had a passion for mountain surroundings".
While the most descriptive accounts of the Gardens come from Greek historians
such as Berossus and Diodorus Siculus, Babylonian records stay silent on the
matter. Tablets from the time of Nebuchadnezzar do not have a single reference
to the Hanging Gardens, although descriptions of his palace, the city of Babylon,
and the walls are found. Even the historians who give detailed descriptions
of the Hanging Gardens never saw them. Modern historians argue that when Alexander's
soldiers reached the fertile land of Mesopotamia and saw Babylon, they were
impressed. When they later returned to their rugged homeland, they had stories
to tell about the amazing gardens and palm trees at Mesopotamia.. About the
palace of Nebuchadnezzar.. About the Tower of Babel and the ziggurats. And it
was the imagination of poets and ancient historians that blended all these elements
together to produce one of the World Wonders.
It wasn't until the twentieth century that some of the mysteries surrounding
the Hanging Gardens were revealed. Archaeologists are still struggling to gather
enough evidence before reaching the final conclusions about the location of
the Gardens, their irrigation system, and their true appearance. Some recent
researchers even suggest that the Hanging Gardens were built by Senaherib, not
by Nebuchadnezzar II (ca. 100 years earlier).
Detailed descriptions of the Gardens come from ancient Greek
sources, including the writings of Strabo and Philo of Byzantium. Here are some
excerpts from their accounts:
"The Garden is quadrangular, and each side is four plethra long. It consists
of arched vaults which are located on checkered cube-like foundations.. The
ascent of the uppermost terrace-roofs is made by a stairway..."
"The Hanging Garden has plants cultivated above ground level, and the roots
of the trees are embedded in an upper terrace rather than in the earth. The
whole mass is supported on stone columns... Streams of water emerging from elevated
sources flow down sloping channels... These waters irrigate the whole garden
saturating the roots of plants and keeping the whole area moist. Hence the grass
is permanently green and the leaves of trees grow firmly attached to supple
branches... This is a work of art of royal luxury and its most striking feature
is that the labor of cultivation is suspended above the heads of the spectators".
More recent archaeological excavations at the ancient city of Babylon in Iraq
uncovered the foundation of the palace. Other findings include the Vaulted Building
with thick walls and an irrigation well near the southern palace. A group of
archaeologists surveyed the area of the southern palace and reconstructed the
Vaulted Building as the Hanging Gardens. However, the Greek historian Strabo
had stated that the gardens were situated by the River Euphrates. So others
argue that the site is too far from the Euphrates to support the theory since
the Vaulted Building is several hundreds of meters away. They reconstructed
the site of the palace and located the Gardens in the area stretching from the
River to the Palace. On the river banks, recently discovered massive walls 25
m thick may have been stepped to form terraces... the ones described in Greek
references.