Where Was Babylon And What Happened To It?

Babylon, famed as one of the great cities of ancient times, served as the capital of southern Mesopotamia (Babylonia) from the early 2nd millennium to the early 1st millennium BCE and as the capital of the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) empire during the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, a time of peak grandeur. Its expansive ruins, positioned on the Euphrates River roughly 55 miles (88 km) south of Baghdad, are located near today's town of Al-Ḥillah, Iraq.

Constructed along the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia during the late third millennium BCE, the ruins of Babylon are situated approximately 55 miles (88 km) south of Baghdad, Iraq, and have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

History of Babylon

The Rise and Expansion of Babylon

Babylon's development as a significant city was late by Mesopotamian standards, as there is no mention of it existing before the 23rd century BCE. The city became the nucleus of a small kingdom established in 1894 BCE by the Amorite king Sumuabum. It happened after the fall of the 3rd dynasty of Ur, under which Babylon was a provincial center. King Sumuabum's successors consolidated Babylon's status. The sixth and most famous of the Amorite dynasty, Hammurabi (1792 - 50 BCE), conquered the surrounding city-states and turned Babylon into the capital of a kingdom comprising all of southern Mesopotamia and part of Assyria. The city's favorable location and its political importance made it the main commercial and administrative center of Babylonia.

Babylon Under Foreign Rule and Assyrian Dominance

The city's wealth and prestige made it a target for foreign conquerors. After a Hittite raid in 1595 BCE, the Kassites controlled the city, establishing a dynasty lasting more than four centuries. Babylon became a religious and literary center, which resulted in the elevation of the Marduk, its chief god, to supremacy in Mesopotamia. Just before 1000, pressure from the Aramaean immigrants from northern Syria brought administrative dislocation inside Babylon. Up until the fall of Assyria in the late 7th century BCE, there was a continual struggle between the Assyrians and the Aramaean or associated Chaldean tribesmen for political control of the city.

The citizens of Babylon claimed privileges, such as exemption from forced labor, imprisonment, and certain taxes, which the Assyrians with a similar background were readier to recognize than were immigrant tribesmen. Moreover, the citizens who became wealthy through commerce benefitted from imperial power and were able to protect international trade but suffered economically because of the disruptive tribesmen. This made Babylon prefer Assyrian to Chaldean or Aramaean rule.

Between the 9th and 7th centuries, Babylon was almost continuously under the Assyrian suzerainty. Close Assyrian involvement in Babylon began with Tiglath-Pileser III due to Chaldean tribesmen pressing the city into city territories. Disorders accompanying the increasing tribal occupation finally convinced Sennacherib, the Assyrian monarch, that peaceful control of Babylon was impossible, and he ordered the destruction of the city in 689.

Esarhaddon, Sennacherib's son, rescinded that policy, and after the tribesmen were expelled and the property of the Babylonians returned to them, Esarhaddon undertook the rebuilding of the city. A civil war broke out between the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal and his brother, who ruled Babylonia as sub-king in the mid-7th century. Ashurbanipal laid siege to the city, resulting in a famine that drove defenders to cannibalism, and the city fell to him in 648.

The Neo-Babylonian Empire and Transition to Persian and Hellenistic Rule

A Chaldean leader, Nabopolassar, made Babylon the capital of a kingdom after Ashurbanipal's death in 626. The realm under his son Nebuchadrezzar II became a significant imperial power. Nebuchadrezzar organized a massive program of rebuilding and fortification in Babylon. His most important successor, Nabonidus, campaigned in Arabia for a decade.

The capital fell almost without resistance when the Persian Achaemenian dynasty attacked under Cyrus II in 539 BCE. Under the Persians, Babylon became the capital of the wealthiest satrapy in the empire.

Babylon was passed to the Macedonian King Alexander the Great in 331. Alexander allowed the city's satrap to coin money and began building a harbor to foster trade. Alexander died in 323 in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar. His generals had a conflict for power, and Babylon passed to the Seleucid dynasty in 312. Babylon's importance was reduced after building the new capital, Seleucia, on the Tigris, where some of Babylon's population was transferred in 275.

Babylon As A City

Nebuchadrezzar's Babylon was the world's largest city at the time, spanning about 10 square kilometers. The Euphrates River ran through the city, with the older part located on the east side of its east bank. A prominent feature there was the grand temple of Marduk and its associated ziggurat, commonly referred to as the Tower of Babel. This tower was constructed in several stages, with a base of approximately 91 meters on each side, and its seven tiers culminated in an uppermost temple adorned with blue glaze, reaching a height equivalent to its base.

The term "Babylonia" encompasses the entire cultural region developed around Babylon, the central city in the area. During the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, Babylonian astronomers pioneered a new empirical approach to astronomy. These scholars began exploring philosophical concepts related to the universe's nature and utilized internal logic in their predictive planetary systems.

Medicine was another crucial area of interest for the Babylonians. The earliest Babylonian medical texts date back to the First Babylonian Dynasty, introducing practices such as physical examinations, prescriptions, diagnoses, and prognoses.

Women were educated in reading and writing, including learning the extinct Sumerian language. A significant amount of literature was translated from Sumerian originals, and laws were documented in this ancient language.

Babylon Now

The eighteenth century witnessed an increasing flow of travelers to Babylon. The archeological site is famous as a unique testimony and remains of one of the most influential empires of the ancient world. Babylon nowadays is an archeological site that possesses cultural and symbolic associations of universal value. The property represents the remains of a multifaced myth that functioned as a model, tale, and symbol for over two thousand years.

The 2003 warfare in Iraq had a devastating effect on several archeological sites and antiquities, many of which were damaged or even looted. In January 2009, the World Monuments Fund, with funding from the U.S Department of State and in collaboration with Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, announced a new conservation plan for the site of the old city of Babylon.