Babylon, Babylonian 

Bab-ilu, Old Babylonian Bāb-ilim, Hebrew Bavel or Babel,

Arabic Aṭlāl Bābil, one of the most famous cities of antiquity. It was the capital of
southern Mesopotamia (Babylonia) from the early 2nd millennium to the early 1st
millennium BCE and capital of the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) empire in the 7th and 6th
centuries BCE, when it was at the height of its splendour. Its extensive ruins, on
the Euphrates River about 55 miles (88 km) south of Baghdad, lie near the modern town
of Al-Ḥillah, Iraq.
History
Though traces of prehistoric settlement exist, Babylon’s development as a major city
was late by Mesopotamian standards; no mention of it existed before the 23rd
century BCE. After the fall of the 3rd dynasty of Ur, under which Babylon had been a
provincial centre, it became the nucleus of a small kingdom established in 1894 BCE by
the Amorite king Sumuabum, whose successors consolidated its status. The sixth and
best-known of the Amorite dynasts, Hammurabi (1792–50 BCE), conquered the
surrounding city-states and raised Babylon to the capital of a kingdom comprising all of
southern Mesopotamia and part of Assyria (northern Iraq). Its political importance,
together with its favourable location, made it henceforth the main commercial and
administrative centre of Babylonia, while its wealth and prestige made it a target for
foreign conquerors.
After a Hittite raid in 1595 BCE, the city passed to the control of the Kassites (c. 1570),
who established a dynasty lasting more than four centuries. Later in this period, Babylon
became a literary and religious centre, the prestige of which was reflected in the
elevation of Marduk, its chief god, to supremacy in Mesopotamia. In 1234 Tukulti-
Ninurta I of Assyria subjugated Babylon, though subsequently the Kassite dynasty
reasserted itself until 1158, when the city was sacked by the Elamites. Babylon’s
acknowledged political supremacy is shown by the fact that the dynasty
of Nebuchadrezzar I (1124–03), which endured for more than a century, made the city
its capital, though the dynasty did not originate there.
Just before 1000, pressure from Aramaean immigrants from northern Syria brought
administrative dislocation inside Babylon. From this period to the fall of Assyria in the
late 7th century BCE, there was a continual struggle between Aramaean or associated
Chaldean tribesmen and the Assyrians for political control of the city. Its citizens
claimed privileges, such as exemption from forced labour, certain taxes, and
imprisonment, which the Assyrians, with a similar background, were usually readier to
recognize than were immigrant tribesmen. Furthermore, the citizens, grown wealthy
through commerce, benefitted from an imperial power able to protect international
trade but suffered economically at the hands of disruptive tribesmen. Such
circumstances made Babylon usually prefer Assyrian to Aramaean or Chaldean rule.
From the 9th to the late 7th century Babylon was almost continuously under Assyrian
suzerainty, usually wielded through native kings, though sometimes Assyrian kings
ruled in person. Close Assyrian involvement in Babylon began with Tiglath-pileser
III (744–727 BCE) as a result of Chaldean tribesmen pressing into city territories,
several times usurping the kingship. Disorders accompanying increasing tribal
occupation finally persuaded the Assyrian monarch Sennacherib (704–681 BCE) that
peaceful control of Babylon was impossible, and in 689 he ordered destruction of the
city. His son Esarhaddon (680–669 BCE) rescinded that policy, and, after expelling the
tribesmen and returning the property of the Babylonians to them, undertook the
rebuilding of the city; but the image of Marduk, removed by Sennacherib, was retained
in Assyria throughout his reign, probably to prevent any potential usurper from using it
to claim the kingship. In the mid-7th century, civil war broke out between the Assyrian
king Ashurbanipal and his brother who ruled in Babylonia (southern Mesopotamia) as
sub-king. Ashurbanipal laid siege to the city, which fell to him in 648 after famine had
driven the defenders to cannibalism.

Evidence of the topography of ancient Babylon is provided by

excavations, cuneiform texts, and descriptions by Herodotus and other Classical
authors. The extensive rebuilding by Nebuchadrezzar has left relatively little
archaeological data in the central area earlier than his time, while elsewhere the water
table has limited excavation in early strata. The reports of Herodotus largely relate to
the Babylon built by Nebuchadrezzar.

Nebuchadrezzar’s Babylon was the largest city in the world, covering about 4 square
miles (10 square km). The Euphrates, which has since shifted its course, flowed through
it, the older part of the city being on the east bank. There the central feature
was Esagila, the great temple of Marduk, with its associated ziggurat (a tower built in
several stages) Etemenanki. The latter, popularly known as the Tower of Babel, had a
base 300 feet (91 metres) on a side, and its seven stages, the uppermost a temple in
blue glaze, reached a total height equal to that of its base. Four other temples in the
eastern half of the city are known from excavations and a larger number from texts.
Along the Euphrates, particularly in the neighbourhood of Esagila, were quays for
trading vessels, and textual evidence that Babylon was an entrepôt for trade with
south Babylonia points to the existence of warehouses. The river was spanned by a
bridge, on brick piles with stone capping, to the western half of the city. The streets
were laid out on a grid, with the main axis parallel to the river. From Esagila northward
passed the paved Processional Way, its walls decorated with enameled lions. Passing
through the Ishtar Gate, adorned with enameled bulls and dragons, it led to the Akitu
House, a small temple outside the city that was said to be visited by Marduk at the New
Year festival. West of the Ishtar Gate, one of eight fortified gates, were two palace
complexes that covered about 40 acres (16 hectares) with their fortifications.

East of the Processional Way lay an area that since the time of Hammurabi had
contained private dwellings built around central courtyards. A massive double wall,
protected by a fosse (ditch), enclosed the city on both sides of the Euphrates. Beyond
the city walls to the east an outer rampart of triple construction, 11 miles long (18 km),
met the Euphrates south and north of the city, enclosing another palace at the rampart’s
northern junction. Between the inner and outer defenses was irrigated land with a
network of canals, some going back to the time of Hammurabi. Greek tradition refers to
the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a simulated hill of vegetation-clad terracing over
a vaulted substructure that in Hellenistic times was deemed one of the Seven Wonders
of the World. German archaeologist Robert Koldewey discovered a unique series of
foundation chambers and vaults in the northeastern corner of the palace at Babylon,
which some suggest may have functioned as part of the substructure of the Hanging
Gardens; others theorize that the garden site, constructed by the Assyrian
king Sennacherib, in fact lay at his capital, Nineveh. However, with no confirmed
remains of the gardens yet uncovered, speculation regarding their location and
mechanism continued into the 21st century.

Tower of Babel, in biblical literature, structure built in the land of Shinar (Babylonia)
some time after the Deluge. The story of its construction, given in Genesis 11:1–9,
appears to be an attempt to explain the existence of diverse human languages.
According to Genesis, the Babylonians wanted to make a name for themselves by
building a mighty city and a tower “with its top in the heavens.” God disrupted the work
by so confusing the language of the workers that they could no longer understand one
another. The city was never completed, and the people were dispersed over the face of
the earth.

The myth may have been inspired by the Babylonian tower temple north of

the Marduk temple, which in Babylonian was called Bab-ilu (“Gate of God”), Hebrew
form Babel, or Bavel. The similarity in pronunciation of Babel and balal (“to confuse”) led
to the play on words in Genesis 11:9: “Therefore its name was called Babel, because
there the Lord confused the language of all the earth.”

People
Amorite, member of an ancient Semitic-speaking people who dominated the history of
Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine from about 2000 to about 1600 BC. In the
oldest cuneiform sources (c. 2400–c. 2000 BC), the Amorites were equated with the
West, though their true place of origin was most likely Arabia, not Syria. They were
troublesome nomads and were believed to be one of the causes of the downfall of the
3rd dynasty of Ur (c. 2112–c. 2004 BC).

During the 2nd millennium BC the Akkadian term Amurru referred not only to an ethnic

group but also to a language and to a geographic and political unit in Syria and
Palestine. At the beginning of the millennium, a large-scale migration of great tribal
federations from Arabia resulted in the occupation of Babylonia proper, the mid-
Euphrates region, and Syria-Palestine. They set up a mosaic of small kingdoms and
rapidly assimilated the Sumero-Akkadian culture. It is possible that this group was
connected with the Amorites mentioned in earlier sources; some scholars, however,
prefer to call this second group Eastern Canaanites, or Canaanites.

Almost all of the local kings in Babylonia (such as Hammurabi of Babylon) belonged to
this stock. One capital was at Mari (modern Tall al-Ḥarīrī, Syria). Farther west, the
political centre was Ḥalab (Aleppo); in that area, as well as in Palestine, the newcomers
were thoroughly mixed with the Hurrians. The region then called Amurru was northern
Palestine, with its centre at Hazor, and the neighbouring Syrian desert.

In the dark age between about 1600 and about 1100 BC, the language of the Amorites
disappeared from Babylonia and the mid-Euphrates; in Syria and Palestine, however, it
became dominant. In Assyrian inscriptions from about 1100 BC, the term
Amurru designated part of Syria and all of Phoenicia and Palestine but no longer
referred to any specific kingdom, language, or population.

God
Marduk, in Mesopotamian religion, the chief god of the city of Babylon and the national
god of Babylonia; as such, he was eventually called simply Bel, or Lord.

Originally, he seems to have been a god of thunderstorms. A poem, known as Enuma

elish and dating from the reign of Nebuchadrezzar I (1119–1098 BCE), relates Marduk’s
rise to such preeminence that he was the god of 50 names, each one that of a deity or
of a divine attribute. After conquering the monster of primeval chaos, Tiamat, he
became Lord of the Gods of Heaven and Earth. All nature, including humanity, owed its
existence to him; the destiny of kingdoms and subjects was in his hands.

Marduk’s chief temples at Babylon were the Esagila and the Etemenanki,

a ziggurat with a shrine of Marduk on the top. In the Esagila the poem Enuma elish was
recited every year at the New Year festival. The goddess named most often as the
consort of Marduk was Zarpanitu.

Marduk’s star was Jupiter, and his sacred animals were horses, dogs, and especially
the so-called dragon with forked tongue, representations of which adorn his city’s walls.
On the oldest monuments Marduk is represented holding a triangular spade or hoe,
interpreted as an emblem of fertility and vegetation. He is also pictured walking or in his
war chariot. Typically, his tunic is adorned with stars; in his hand is a sceptre, and he
carries a bow, spear, net, or thunderbolt. Kings of Assyria and Persia also honoured
Marduk and Zarpanitu in inscriptions and rebuilt many of their temples.

Marduk was later known as Bel, a name derived from the Semitic word baal, or “lord.”
Bel had all the attributes of Marduk, and his status and cult were much the same. Bel,
however, gradually came to be thought of as the god of order and destiny.
In Greek writings references to Bel indicate this Babylonian deity and not the Syrian god
of Palmyra of the same name.

Ancient City, Iraq

Seleucia on the Tigris, Greek Seleukeia, Hellenistic city founded by Seleucus I
Nicator (reigned 312–281 BC) as his eastern capital; it replaced Babylon as
Mesopotamia’s leading city and was closely associated with the spread of
Hellenistic culture in Mesopotamia. The city lay along the Tigris River about 20 miles
(32 km) southeast of modern Baghdad. Seleucia was a cosmopolitan city whose
population was composed largely of Macedonians and Greeks and also included Jews
and Syrians. Pliny the Elder gives the population as 600,000. During the Parthian
domination of the Tigris-Euphrates valley that began in the 2nd century BC, Seleucia
continued to be the foremost city of the east in position and trade. Preserving its Greek
sympathies, it was at times in open rebellion against the Parthian kings, who favoured
the neighbouring city of Ctesiphon and founded Vologesias, or Vologesocerta, as a rival
canal port. Seleucia eventually was burned by the Roman commander Gaius Avidius
Cassius in AD 165, at which time it is said to have had at least 300,000 inhabitants. The
destruction of the city marks the end of Hellenism in Mesopotamia. The Roman
emperor Septimius Severus, in his Parthian campaign of 197, found the site completely
abandoned. Nothing of the city remains above ground; the excavation of the site (then
called Tel Umar) during 1927–32 yielded interesting but unspectacular results.