Babylonia was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). A small Amorite-ruled state emerged in 1894 BC, which contained at this time the minor administrative town of Babylon. Babylon greatly expanded from the small provincial town that it had originally been during the Akkadian Empire (2335-2154 BC) during the reign of Hammurabi in the first half of the 18th century BC, becoming a major capital city. During the reign of Hammurabi and afterwards, Babylonia was called "Mat Akkadi" "the country of Akkad" in the Akkadian language. It was often involved in rivalry with its older fellow Akkadian-speaking state of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia, as well as Elam to the east, in Ancient Iran. Babylonia briefly became the major power in the region after Hammurabi (fl. c. 1792 1752 BC middle chronology, or c. 1696 1654 BC, short chronology) created a short-lived empire, succeeding the earlier Akkadian Empire, Third Dynasty of Ur, and Old Assyrian Empire; however, the Babylonian empire rapidly fell apart after the death of Hammurabi and reverted back to a small kingdom.

The Babylonian state, like Assyria to the north, retained the written Akkadian language for official use (the language of its native populace), despite its Northwest Semitic-speaking Amorite founders and Kassite successors, who spoke a language isolate, not being native Mesopotamians. It retained the Sumerian language for religious use (as did Assyria), but already by the time Babylon was founded, this was no longer a spoken language, having been wholly subsumed by Akkadian. The earlier Akkadian and Sumerian traditions played a major role in Babylonian and Assyrian culture, and the region would remain an important cultural center, even under its protracted periods of outside rule.

1. What is this about?
2. Where is that?
3. When was it created?
4. What did it have in it?
5. Did it stay small?
6. When did it get bigger?
7. Who ruled during this time?
8. What did it turn into then?
9. What did they speak there?
10. What was it called in that?
11. What does that mean?
1. The Babylonia State
2. central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq).
3. 1894 BC,
4. minor administrative town of Babylon.
5. No
6. first half of the 18th century BC
7. Hammurabi
8. a major capital city.
9. Akkadian language
10. Mat Akkadi
11. the country of Akkad