Babylon [from the Akkadian bāb-ilû, meaning "Gateway of God"] was a city of ancient Mesopotamia, the ruins of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers (55 mi) south of Baghdad, in the fertile Mesopotamian plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The earliest source to mention Babylon may be a dated tablet of the reign of Sargon of Akkad (ca. 24th century BC short chronology). The so-called "Weidner Chronicle" states that it was Sargon himself who built Babylon "in front of Akkad" (ABC 19:51). The Eastern Canaan Amorites conquered and settled in Babylon, making it their capital in 1959 BC. From there, the old Babylonian Kingdom was born. The Kingdom then expanded into a mighty Mesopotamian Empire under the rule of its famous king: Hammurabi, sometime in the 18th century BC. At that time, Babylon flourished and became the cultural and economical capital of the entire Fertile Crescent. It also became the seat of the renown Code of Hammurabi, the first code of law in Human History. It was the "holy city" of Babylonia approximately 2300 BC, and the seat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 612 BC. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from ca. 1770 to 1670 BC, and again between ca. 612 and 320 BC. It was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. It is recorded that Babylon's legal system developed a form of negligence law, and Babylon was probably the first culture to develop negligence law. In the common law world, the law of negligence was not fully rediscovered until the 20th century. The video is a slideshow of pictures, mostly paintings, depicting the city of Babylon. Some even show an exaggeratingly tall Tower of Babel. While the Tower of Babel is considered fictional by some, many notable scholars say that it has been influenced by an actual ziggurat: the Etemenanki, built by the 6th century BC Neo-Babylonian dynasty rulers Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II. Tags: Babylonia Semites Mesopotamia Iraq Arabia The Hanging Gardens ancient civilisation tower of Babel Amorites Eastern Canaanites Semitic city Babylon BabAllah Akkadians Old Babylonian Dynasty Hammurabi Neo-Babylon Chaldeans Shamas Code of law Lion of Babel Assad Babel Euphrate Fertile Crescent Canaan Holy city Babylonian Arabian Peninsula Semitism Semitic history Arabs Monotheism

• published: 14 May 2010
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