Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Painting made in the XIX century.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, were built in the 17th century VI a. C. during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II in the ancient city of Babylon (Babel of Biblical texts), on the banks of the Euphrates River (Mesopotamia). The waters to irrigate the plants were brought from the banks of the river, which was located on the slopes of the mountain. Palm trees and fruit trees, such as dates and coconuts, were planted in the gardens.
Its designs and construction are believed to have begun in 600 B.C. C., by order of the ruler at that time Nebuchadnezzar II of the Chaldean dynasty of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, as a sign of love for his wife Amitis, daughter of King Ciáxares of the Median Empire (Media or "Umman Manda"), to remind him of the mountains of his land. It is considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world along with the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the statue of Zeus in Olympia, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
The Hanging Gardens are the only one of the Seven Wonders whose location has not been definitively established. There are no extant Babylonian texts mentioning the gardens, and no definitive archaeological evidence has been found in Babylonia. Three have been suggested. theories to explain this: first, that they were purely mythical, and descriptions found in ancient Greek and Roman writings (including those of Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and Quintus Curtius Rufus) represented a romantic ideal of an oriental garden; second, place, which existed in Babylonia, but were destroyed sometime around the I century AD. and, third, that the legend refers to a well-documented garden that the Assyrian king (704-681 BC) built in his capital, Nineveh, on the Tigris River, near modern Mosul city.
History and legend of the Gardens
Around 600 B.C. C., Nebuchadnezzar II, king of the Chaldeans, wanted to give his wife Amitis, daughter of the king of the Medes, a gift that would show his love for her and remind her of the beautiful mountains of her flowery land, so different from the great plains. of Babylon.
According to another legend, instead, the gardens would have been created in the IX century around 810 BC. C., Sammuramat reigned in Assyria and Babylonia, called Semiramis by the Greeks, widow of Shamshiadad V, and regent of her son Adad-nirari III. She was a brave queen. It is said that she conquered India and Egypt, but could not resist her son conspiring to defeat her, and committed suicide.
The gardens belonged to ancient Mesopotamia and are counted among the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Features
The gardens were next to the palace of the King of Babylon, next to the river, so that travelers could see them, since access to the town was prohibited. On the highest of the terraces was a water tank from which several streams ran.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon did not "hang" really in the sense of being suspended by cables or ropes. The name comes from an incorrect translation of the Greek word kremastos or the Latin term pensilis, which does not exactly mean "to hang" but if "protrude", as in the case of a terrace or a balcony.
The Greek geographer Strabo, who described the gardens in the 1st century B.C. C wrote:
“This consists of vaulted terraces raised on each other, resting on cubic pillars. These are hollow and stuffed with land to allow the planting of large trees. The pillars, the vaults, and the terraces are built with baked brick and asphalt. ”
The most recent archaeological excavations in the ancient city of Babylon, in present-day Iraq, uncovered the palace settlement. Other finds include the vaulted construction with thick walls and an irrigation near the southern palace.
A group of archaeologists examined the southern area of the palace and recreated the vaulted construction as the Hanging Gardens [citation needed]. However, the Greek historian Strabo had indicated that the gardens were located on the Euphrates River, while the vaulted construction is several hundred meters away. They rebuilt the site of the palace and located the gardens in the area that stretched from the river to the palace.
The decline of gardens
With the possible decline of Babylon and the end of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the gardens were progressively abandoned. When Alexander the Great arrived in the city in the IV century B.C. C. the gardens were already partially in ruins and totally abandoned. Finally the gardens were destroyed by the king Evemero in the year 126 a. c.
Doubts about its existence
It is unclear whether the Hanging Gardens were a royal construction or a poetic creation, due to a lack of documentation in contemporary Babylonian sources. Nebuchadnezzar's wife Amyitis (or any other wife) is also not mentioned, although a political marriage to a Mede or Persian would not have been unusual. Many records of Nebuchadnezzar's works exist, however his long and comprehensive inscriptions they do not mention any garden. However, the gardens are said to have been still in existence at the time later writers described them, and some of these accounts are considered to come from people who had visited Babylon. Herodotus, describing Babylon in his Histories , does not mention the Hanging Gardens, though it may be that the gardens were not yet well known to the Greeks at the time of their visit.
To date, no archaeological evidence has been found in Babylon of the Hanging Gardens. It is possible that evidence exists under the Euphrates, which cannot be safely excavated at present. The river flowed east of its present position during the time of Nebuchadnezzar II, and little is known of the western part of Babylonia. Rollinger has suggested that Berossus attributed the Gardens to Nebuchadnezzar for political reasons, and that he had adopted the legend from elsewhere.
Cuneiform sources
Existence of intramural gardens in Hammurabi's palace at the time of the first Babylonian dynasty (SXVIII ), known from the tablets unearthed at Mari, in which the Babylonian king received the troops of his allies who had come to support him:
- A.486+ = A.486+M.5319: Hammurabi receives a thousand Bedouin driven from Mari by General Bahdi-Addu and installed in Babylon, then receives them in the garden for a meal and a military parade.
- A.2475 + = ARM 26/2 366: The reception by Hammurabi of a thousand Kazallu soldiers, who were installed, upon their arrival in Babylon, in a garden called "Dilmun's Paternal", for a meal and gifts.
Existence of royal gardens at the time of King Merodach-Baladan II (721-713 and 703 BC) described on the clay tablet BM.46226 Description of the plants that grew in the garden, which probably served as the king's table (garlic, onions, leeks, lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, numerous condiments and herbs).
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