Babylon, Ancient Champion of Equality?
By: Remy Dean
Tags: Art History, History, Art, Archaeology, Architecture

These large wall reliefs were created as bass-relief carvings and covered with colourfully glazed tiles which, for the time, was a technically advanced use of ceramic design. The lion, bulls, and chimera were illustrative of the myths and storytelling traditions of an advanced culture and their prominent placement shows their great importance.

Babylon’s most famous ruler, King Nebuchadnezzar II, gets a mention in the Bible, and more recently in The Matrix films (1999 — 2003). He ruled at the height of the Babylonian Empire, liberated his people from Assyrian rule, defeated the Egyptians, and re-built the great city of Babylon, earning mythical status with its unique grandeur including the ‘Tower of Babel’ and ‘Hanging Gardens’.

The ‘Hanging Gardens’ were one of the seven ancient wonders of the world and could be considered an early example of land art. They grew on artificial, terraced hills around the city that were irrigated using ingenious pumps of some kind that, according to Greek engineer, Philo, and historian, Herodotus, may have been similar in design to those later known as ‘Archimedes Screws’.

During his reign, from c.605 BCE until his death in 562, Nebuchadnezzar also had a great bridge built across the river Euphrates to connect the two halves of the vast fortified city, and a tunnel under the river has been described, both huge engineering achievements for the time.

His new palace was so grand it became known as ‘The Marvel of Mankind’, and incorporated the world’s first known museum. Art and artefacts were displayed to celebrate the stories of Babylon’s past dynasties — highlighting how the kingdom had repeatedly fallen, repelled its oppressors, and risen again and again, stronger each time.

hand-coloured C19th print of Babylon illustrating the Tower of Babel, the Ziggurat and Hanging Gardens [view license]

Much of this information is fabled and only mentioned in texts written at a later date. However, the ruins of Babylon attest that during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar it was the biggest city in the world. I’ve heard it described as being “the size of Chicago”. It was enclosed by sturdy fortified walls interrupted by grand gates. The main, and most famous, being known as ‘The Ishtar Gate’, which led onto the half-mile long, paved ‘Processional Way’.

Its great central temple, dedicated to their great god Marduk, was one of several immense structures built to honour their deities. The ruins of the Ziggurat of Etemenanki, which had probably stood long before Nebuchadnezzar, has a square base measuring 300 feet per side and rose like a cuboid, stepped pyramid to seven levels, reaching a height of 300 feet. The upper temple was clad in the distinctive blue glazed tiles. It’s thought that this was the real ‘Tower of Babel’ that inspired the Biblical tale.

The site of the Hanging Gardens has not been identified. There’s a series of vaulted chambers that appear to be part of a structure designed to support immense weight at the north-eastern side of the ruins. It’s been speculated that they may have been part of the foundations for the stacked terraces. It is also suggested that they were not actually located in Babylon, but built near the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh…

Wherever they were, such a hill of greenery, seemingly suspended against the sky, growing lusciously above a desert landscape would’ve, indeed, presented a wondrous spectacle. Even more impressive than the irrigated, expansive and fertile plains surrounding the city, which were also enclosed by an incredibly long second fortification.

beautiful blue and white glazed cuneiform inscription from the Ishtar Gate commemorating the rebuilding of Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II [view license]

This was the culmination of Ancient Mesopotamian civilization. The city of Babylon was a great trade centre and its rulers upheld a moral code to protect the weak from oppression by the strong… This included equal rights for women and tolerance for other religions. (Though the Laws of Bablyon are thought to have inspired the Ten Commandments, the Bible tells a different story!) They guarded trade routes to the city, including the great Euphrates River, and guaranteed safe passage for all merchants, regardless of whether they were from warring nations or not.

The Laws of Babylon were laid-down by an earlier First Dynasty King, Hammurabi, reigning from c.1792 BC to 1750 BCE, and directed that:

the monarch be at all times benevolent and easily accessible to all citizens and duty-bound to protect the weak against oppression by the strong, no matter how high-place the oppressor...

The result was that Babylon grew even richer and became the cultural capital of the world, where people would come together not only to trade goods, but also to exchange ideas and information. It was the place where arts flourished and new creative ideas, philosophies and technologies mingled freely and advanced through fusion. It was a great melting pot of early civilization and formed the cultural bridge from the Ancient to the Classical period.