Its fate is still the subject of crackpot religious theories online and its history and imagery were used by rulers of Iraq, a country whose boundaries are the legacy of colonialism, to attempt to cement a unified national identity out of its disparate parts.īabylon has appeared on coins and stamps and replicas of the Ishtar Gate and Ninmakh temple built on the site in the 1960s. It’s the idea of Babylon that has proved more enduring than the city itself.

It wasn’t properly discovered again until early 19th century scholars began poking around. The early death of Alexander and a dividing of the spoils among his generals had signaled the city’s terminal decline. It was Nebuchadnezzar who attacked Jerusalem and transported the Jews back to Babylon where they “sat down and wept” (Psalm 137:1) Its citizens, however, saw themselves as inhabitants of a sacred city, a paradise at the cosmic centre of the world where their chief god Marduk had created order out of chaos.īabylon’s age of infamy was over by the 539 BC when it was conquered first by the Persians, then by Alexander the Great, before Islam arrived in the 7th century AD. Under its Chaldean dynasty king Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylon was notorious for its wickedness and wildness. This Old Babylon declined after his death but remained the capital of southern Mesopotamia for centuries under various rulers.Ī second golden age were the 6th and 7th centuries BC when Babylon became what’s thought to be the largest city in the world, shaking off Assyrian rule and becoming the first city to exceed 200,000 inhabitants. King Hammurabi brought the city fame, establishing the world’s first legal codes as settled society became increasingly complex.

The city emerged c.1900 BC, as the nomadic Semitic tribe, the Amorites turned merchants.

Babylon was in Mesopotamia, the fertile land where some of the world’s earliest settled civilizations were founded.

Where was babylon located