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History and Significance of Babylon

Babylon was an important kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia from the 18th to 6th centuries BC located along the Euphrates River. It started as a small Akkadian town but grew to become a major city after Hammurabi made it the capital of his empire in the 18th century BC. Babylon experienced periods of domination by the Assyrians, Kassites, and Elamites before becoming the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC. The remains of the ancient city are located in modern-day Hillah, Iraq.

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68 views2 pages

History and Significance of Babylon

Babylon was an important kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia from the 18th to 6th centuries BC located along the Euphrates River. It started as a small Akkadian town but grew to become a major city after Hammurabi made it the capital of his empire in the 18th century BC. Babylon experienced periods of domination by the Assyrians, Kassites, and Elamites before becoming the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC. The remains of the ancient city are located in modern-day Hillah, Iraq.

Uploaded by

Joshua Wacangan
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Babylon was a key kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia from the 18th to 6th centuries BC.

The name-
giving capital city was built on the Euphrates river and divided in equal parts along its left and right
banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods. Babylon was originally a
small Akkadian town dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c. 2300 BCE.
The town became part of a small independent city-state with the rise of the First Babylonian
dynasty in the 19th century BC. After the Amorite king Hammurabi created a short-lived empire in
the 18th century BC, he built Babylon up into a major city and declared himself its king, and southern
Mesopotamia became known as Babylonia and Babylon eclipsed Nippur as its holy city. The empire
waned under Hammurabi's son Samsu-iluna and Babylon spent long periods
under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the
Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the short-lived Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to
539 BC. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,
although a number of scholars believe these were actually in the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. After
the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rule of
the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, and Sassanid empires.
It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world c. 1770 – c. 1670 BC, and again
c. 612 – c. 320 BC. It was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000.[2] Estimates for
the maximum extent of its area range from 890[3] to 900 hectares (2,200 acres).[4]
The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometres
(53 mi) south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris.
The main sources of information about Babylon—excavation of the site itself, references
in cuneiform texts found elsewhere in Mesopotamia, references in the Bible, descriptions in classical
writing (especially by Herodotus), and second-hand descriptions (citing the work
of Ctesias and Berossus)—present an incomplete and sometimes contradictory picture of the
ancient city even at its peak in the sixth century BC.[5]

Contents

 1Name
 2Geography
 3Sources
o 3.1Early references
o 3.2Classical dating
 4History
o 4.1Old Babylonian period
o 4.2Middle Babylon
o 4.3Assyrian period
o 4.4Neo-Babylonian Empire
o 4.5Persian conquest
o 4.6Hellenistic period
o 4.7Renewed Persian rule
o 4.8Muslim conquest
 5Modern era
o 5.1Excavation and research
o 5.2Iraqi Government
o 5.3US and Polish occupation
o 5.4Present day
 6Cultural importance
o 6.1Biblical narrative
 7See also
 8Notes
 9References
o 9.1Sources
o 9.2Further reading
 10External links
o 10.1Iraq war

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