Hanging Gardens (Civ6)/Civilopedia

The Hanging Gardens may not have even existed, much less been a “wonder”; no Babylonian source mentions them, and there is no archaeological evidence for them (unlike for other ancient wonders of the world). The primary evidence for the Gardens comes from several Greek and Roman texts – how they were created, why they were created, their size and variety, even how they were watered. According to these, Nebuchadnezzar II constructed the Gardens c. 600 BC for his (obviously spoiled) homesick Median wife Amytis, who missed the green hills of her birthplace. The “historical” sources also state that the Gardens were an ascending series of terraces (much like a ziggurat) built of mud bricks and containing all manner of plants. The base was supposedly 400 feet square, and the whole mass rose 75 feet into the very dry air; estimates are that the gardens would have required 8200 gallons of water a day to keep the plants alive in Babylon. If the Gardens did exist, it is assumed these were destroyed sometime during the first century AD.