Hanging Gardens of Babylon

ornamental gardens planted on the terraces of the ziggurats of ancient Babylon. Cf. Seven Wonders of the World.

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▪ ancient garden, Babylon, Mesopotamia

 gardens considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World and thought to be located near the royal palace in Babylon. By the beginning of the 21st century, the site of the Hanging Gardens had not yet been conclusively established; nevertheless, many theories persisted regarding the structure and location of the gardens. Some researchers proposed that these were rooftop gardens. Another theory, popularized by the writings of British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley (Woolley, Sir Leonard), suggested that the gardens were built within the walls of the royal palace at Babylon, the capital of Babylonia (now in southern Iraq), and did not actually “hang” but were instead “up in the air”; that is, they were roof gardens laid out on a series of ziggurat terraces that were irrigated by pumps from the Euphrates River. Traditionally, they were thought to be the work either of the semilegendary Queen Sammu-ramat (Greek Semiramis, mother of the Assyrian king Adad-nirari III, who reigned from 810 to 783 BC) or of King Nebuchadrezzar II (reigned c. 605–c. 561 BC), who built them to console his Median wife, Amytis, because she missed the mountains and greenery of her homeland.

      The Hanging Gardens were described in detail by a number of Classical authors. Though some sources disagreed on who built them, a number of descriptions concurred that the gardens were located near the royal palace and were set upon vaulted terraces. They were also described as having been watered by an exceptional system of irrigation and roofed with stone balconies on which were layered various materials, such as reeds, bitumen, and lead, so that the irrigation water would not seep through the terraces. Although no certain traces of the Hanging Gardens have been found, a German archaeologist, Robert Koldewey (Koldewey, Robert), did uncover an unusual series of foundation chambers and vaults in the northeastern corner of the palace at Babylon. A well in one of the vaults may have been used in conjunction with a chain pump and thus was thought perhaps to be part of the substructure of the once towering Hanging Gardens.

      Research in the late 20th and early 21st centuries suggested that popular theories holding that the Hanging Gardens had once thrived in Babylon atop a rooftop or terraced ziggurat were perhaps misconceptions. Instead, a later theory postulated that, owing to confusion among Classical sources, the Hanging Gardens might well have been those constructed by Sennacherib (705/704–681 BC) at Nineveh. This research suggested that the gardens were laid out on a sloping construct designed to imitate a natural mountain landscape and were watered by a novel system of irrigation, perhaps making early use of what would eventually be known as the Archimedes screw.

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