The History Behind: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Did One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Actually Exist at All?

There are Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Everyone knows this. From the Lighthouse at Alexandria to the Colossus of Rhodes, these fabulous works of antiquity are now in ruins. Only the Great Pyramid of Giza still stands. So too, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon must lay somewhere under the sands of modern-day Iraq, its ruins waiting to one day be found again by archaeologists. Or must they? While popular history asserts that there were seven genuine wonders of the ancient world, the truth may be that the Hanging Gardens never actually existed at all.

The Hanging Gardens are said to be one of the most incredible feats of engineering in the world at the time. Consisting of a series of walled and tiered gardens, a lush paradise was created in the middle of Babylon itself, drawing water from the Euphrates river to keep trees, shrubs, and vines alive. The construction resembled an artificial mountain and was unlike anything seen in the world again for millennia. The great historian Herodotus wrote in 450 BC that “in addition to its size, Babylon surpasses in splendour any city in the known world.”