Ancient Mesopotamia

The Akkadian and Babylonian Civilizations

Akkadian Civilization - Introduction
The Sumerians only ruled the South of Mesopotamia.
The first Empire to rule all of Mesopotamia was the
Akkadian Empire.

The Akkadians originally lived in northern

Mesopotamia, their capital was called AKKAD.

They had a similar culture and government to the

Sumerians, but spoke a different language. This
caused lots of problems between them.

As the Sumerians were very strong, the Akkadian

rulers discovered that if they united many city-states
together they could be stronger. This was the
beginning of starting to think about building Empires.
 Akkadian Civilization - Sargon the Great
Sargon the Great was the most famous King of
Akkadia. He was the person that made Akkad a
great power in Mesopotamia.

When the powerful city of Uruk attacked Akkad, he

fought back and eventually conquered Uruk. After
he did, he went on to conquer all of the Sumerians
City-states and united the North and South of
Mesopotamia under one single ruler.

After creating his Empire, Sargon came up with the

idea that a man’s sons should inherit his kingdom.
That is how he created the first Dynasty.

Inherit: To receive from your family something (such Dynasty: When a family rules a kingdom for many
as money or a Kingdom) generations.
Akkadian Civilization - The Empire
After creating the idea of a Dynasty, Sargon's sons
expanded the Sumerian empire, reaching as far as the
Mediterranean Sea and Syria. (We can see this in the map.)

This Akkadian Empire lasted over 200 years.

Nevertheless, in the year 2100 BC the Sumerian city of Ur

became very powerful once again and rebelled against the
Akkadian King. The Sumerian city won and became the new
ruler of all the Empire.

The Sumerians learnt a lot from the Akkadians, like:

● Keeping city-states united and ruled by a Dynasty.

● Building roads from city to city to better their
communication and trade.
● There was a Postal Service that was used to send
letters from one city to another.
Babylonian Civilization - Introduction
After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, two new
empires appeared. The Babylonians to the south
and the Assyrians to the north.

The Babylonians had their Capital city of Babylon

which became one of the most important centres of
trade at that time.

The Babylonians would be the first civilization to

form an Empire that would conquer ALL of
Mesopotamia.

It was their greatest leader, King Hammurabi that

would make Babylon this powerful.
 Babylonian Civilization - King Hammurabi
In the image above we can see the city of
Babylon with its famous walls.
The city of Babylon had existed for many years but
it was King Hammurabi that made it a great and
powerful city in the year 1792 BC.
Under Hammurabi's rule, the city of Babylon
became the most powerful city in Mesopotamia.
Babylon was located next to Euphrates River, in
the centre of Mesopotamia, this was a very
strategic position and the city grew to be as big as
200,000 people.
As people came to the city to live it became more
powerful and also many people brought new ideas
(culture and technology) to the city. The pride of
the city was the huge Ziggurat that was located in
the middle of the city.
 Babylonian Civilization - King Hammurabi
As the city became bigger, it presented a lot of
problems, as it was harder to control the people.
So, King Hammurabi invented a law system, called
Hammurabi’s Code.

Hammurabi's Code was the first law system ever

written down. It was written down on clay tablets
and also on tall pillars called steles (like the one in
the image on the right.)

Hammurabi’s Code consisted of 282 laws. There

were laws governing commerce and for the sale of
slaves. There were also laws describing
punishments for criminal behaviour and even laws
Stele: A tall pillar that contains Hammurabi’s Code. for adoption and marriage.
Babylonian Civilization - Neo-Babylon
After King Hammurabi died his sons took over, and
they were not good kings.

The Empire was quickly conquered by their

competition to the North, the Assyrians.

But that wasn’t the end of their story…

As time went by, almost 400 years later, a new King

appeared in Babylon. His name was
Nebuchadnezzar II, and he brought Babylon to its
past glory.

This was now a new Babylon, which is why we call

this different civilization: Neo-Babylon.
Babylonian Civilization - Neo-Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar II ruled for 43 years. He was a great
military leader and expanded the Empire to include much
of the Middle East and Mediterranean. He is famous for
conquering the Hebrews and taking them into slavery for
70 years as told in the Bible.

Nebuchadnezzar II wasn’t only a great conqueror but

also a great city builder. He restored the temples that had
been destroyed and made Babylon the centre of the
world once again.

Nebuchadnezzar II also built the Hanging Gardens of

Babylon. This building was a Huge Ziggurat with many
terraces and was 20 meters high (one of the tallest
buildings at that time.) It had trees, flowers, and plants
from all over;and is considered one of the great wonders
of the Ancient World. (We will see it on the next slide)
In the next chapter we will learn about the best fighters of Mesopotamia, the Assyrians...