The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
One of Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
If they existed, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon would be the second oldest of the ancient wonders. Built in the 6th century, the gardens are long gone. Some scholars argue that the reason there’s no record of them is precisely because they were gardens — plants and flowers are living things that eventually die. Even if the structure on which the gardens were affixed remains, it could very well be in unrecognizable ruins.
The city of Babylon, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, must have been a wonder to the ancient traveler’s eyes. “In addition to its size,” wrote Herodotus, a Greek historian in 450 BC, “Babylon surpasses in splendor any city in the known world.”
Herodotus claimed the outer walls were 56 miles in length, 80 feet thick and 320 feet high. Wide enough, he said, to allow two four-horse chariots to pass each other. The city also had inner walls which were “not so thick as the first, but hardly less strong.” Inside these double walls were fortresses and temples containing immense statues of solid gold. Rising above the city was the famous Tower of Babel, a temple to the god Marduk, that seemed to reach to the heavens.
Accounts indicate that the garden was built by King Nebuchadnezzar, (But some scholars theorize that the gardens were actually…
