Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers (55 mi) south of Baghdad. All that remains of the original ancient famed city of Babylon today is a mound, or tell, of broken mud-brick buildings and debris in the fertile Mesopotamian plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in Iraq. Although it has been reconstructed, historical resources inform us that Babylon was at first a small town, that had sprung up by the beginning of the third millennium BCE (the dawn of the dynasties). The town flourished and attained prominence and political repute with the rise of the First Babylonian Dynasty. It was the "holy city" of Babylonia by approximately 2300 BCE, and the seat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 612 BCE. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The form Babylon is the Greek variant of Akkadian Babilu (bāb-ilû, meaning "Gateway of the god(s)", translating Sumerian Ka.dingir.ra). In the Hebrew Bible, the name appears as (Babel), interpreted by Book of Genesis 11:9 to mean "confusion" (of languages), from the verb balbal, "to confuse".

History

The earliest source to mention Babylon may be a dated tablet of the reign of Sargon of Akkad (ca. 24th century BCE short chronology). The so-called "Weidner Chronicle" states that it was Sargon himself who built Babylon "in front of Akkad" (ABC 19:51). Another chronicle likewise states that Sargon "dug up the dirt of the pit of Babylon, and made a counterpart of Babylon next to Agade". (ABC 20:18-19).
More recently, some researchers have
stated that those sources may refer to Sargon II of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
rather than Sargon of Akkad.

Some scholars, including linguist I.J. Gelb, have suggested that the name Babil is an echo of an earlier city name. According to Ranajit Pal, this city was in the East. Herzfeld wrote about Bawer in Iran, which was allegedly founded by Jamshid; the name Babil could be an echo of Bawer. David Rohl holds that the original Babylon is to be identified with Eridu. The Bible in Genesis 10 indicates that Nimrod was the original founder of Babel (Babylon). Joan Oates claims in her book Babylon that the rendering "Gateway of the gods" is no longer accepted by modern scholars.

Over the years, the power and population of Babylon waned. From around the 20th century BCE, it was occupied by Amorites, nomadic tribes from the west who were Semitic speakers like the Akkadians, but did not practice agriculture like them, preferring to herd sheep.
thumb|right|400px|Map showing the Babylonian territory upon Hammurabi's ascension in 1792 BCE and upon his death in 1750 BCE

Old Babylonian period

The First Babylonian Dynasty was established by Sumu-abum, but the city-state controlled little surrounding territory until it became the capital of Hammurabi's empire (ca. 18th century BCE). Subsequently, the city continued to be the capital of the region known as Babylonia — although during the almost 400 years of domination by the Kassites (1530–1155 BCE), the city was renamed Karanduniash.

Hammurabi is also known for codifying the laws of Babylonia into the Code of Hammurabia.k.a.- ('Hammurabi's Code') that has had a lasting influence on legal thought.

The city itself was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods. Babylon grew in extent and grandeur over time, but gradually became subject to the rule of Assyria.

It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from ca. 1770 to 1670 BCE, and again between ca. 612 and 320 BCE. It was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000.
left|thumb|Detail of the Ishtar Gate

Assyrian period

During the reign of Sennacherib of Assyria, Babylonia was in a constant state of revolt, led by Mushezib-Marduk, and suppressed only by the complete destruction of the city of Babylon. In 689 BCE, its walls, temples and palaces were razed, and the rubble was thrown into the Arakhtu, the sea bordering the earlier Babylon on the south. This act shocked the religious conscience of Mesopotamia; the subsequent murder of Sennacherib was held to be in expiation of it, and his successor Esarhaddon hastened to rebuild the old city, to receive there his crown, and make it his residence during part of the year. On his death, Babylonia was left to be governed by his elder son Shamash-shum-ukin, who eventually headed a revolt in 652 BCE against his brother in Nineveh, Assurbanipal.

Once again, Babylon was besieged by the Assyrians and starved into surrender. Assurbanipal purified the city and celebrated a "service of reconciliation", but did not venture to "take the hands" of Bel. In the subsequent overthrow of the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonians saw another example of divine vengeance. (Albert Houtum-Schindler, "Babylon," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed.)

Neo-Babylonian Chaldean Empire

Under Nabopolassar, Babylon threw off the Assyrian rule in 626 BC and became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Chaldean Empire.

With the recovery of Babylonian independence, a new era of architectural activity ensued, and his son Nebuchadnezzar II (604–561 BCE) made Babylon into one of the wonders of the ancient world. Nebuchadnezzar ordered the complete reconstruction of the imperial grounds, including rebuilding the Etemenanki ziggurat and the construction of the Ishtar Gate — the most spectacular of eight gates that ringed the perimeter of Babylon. A reconstruction of The Ishtar Gate is located in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. All that was ever found of the Original Ishtar gate was the foundation and scattered bricks. Nebuchadnezzar is also credited with the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world), said to have been built for his homesick wife Amyitis. Whether the gardens did exist is a matter of dispute. Although excavations by German archaeologist Robert Koldewey are thought to reveal its foundations, many historians disagree about the location, and some believe it may have been confused with gardens in Nineveh.

Persia captures Babylon

In 539 BCE, the Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, with an unprecedented military engagement known as the Battle of Opis. The famed walls of Babylon were indeed impenetrable, with the only way into the city through one of its many gates or through the Euphrates, which ebbed beneath its thick walls. Metal gates at the river's in-flow and out-flow prevented underwater intruders, if one could hold one's breath to reach them. Cyrus (or his generals) devised a plan to use the Euphrates as the mode of entry to the city, ordering large camps of troops at each point and instructed them to wait for the signal. Awaiting an evening of a national feast among Babylonians (generally thought to refer to the feast of Belshazzar mentioned in Daniel V), Cyrus' troops diverted the Euphrates river upstream, causing the Euphrates to drop to about 'mid thigh level on a man' or to dry up altogether. The soldiers marched under the walls through thigh-level water or as dry as mud. The Persian Army conquered the outlying areas of the city's interior while a majority of Babylonians at the city center were oblivious to the breach. The account was elaborated upon by Herodotus, and is also mentioned by passages in the Hebrew Bible. Cyrus claimed the city by walking through the gates of Babylon with little or no resistance from the drunken Babylonians.

Cyrus later issued a decree permitting captive people, including the Jews, to return to their own land (as explained in the Old Testament), to allow their temple to be rebuilt back in Jerusalem.

Under Cyrus and the subsequent Persian king Darius the Great, Babylon became the capital city of the 9th Satrapy (Babylonia in the south and Athura in the north), as well as a centre of learning and scientific advancement. In Achaemenid Persia, the ancient Babylonian arts of astronomy and mathematics were revitalised and flourished, and Babylonian scholars completed maps of constellations. The city was the administrative capital of the Persian Empire, the preeminent power of the then known world, and it played a vital part in the history of that region for over two centuries. Many important archaeological discoveries have been made that can provide a better understanding of that era.

The early Persian kings had attempted to maintain the religious ceremonies of Marduk, but by the reign of Darius III, over-taxation and the strains of numerous wars led to a deterioration of Babylon's main shrines and canals, and the disintegration of the surrounding region. Despite three attempts at rebellion in 522 BCE, 521 BCE and 482 BCE, the land and city of Babylon remained solidly under Persian rule for two centuries, until Alexander the Great's entry in 331 BCE.

Hellenistic period

In 331 BCE, Darius III was defeated by the forces of the Ancient Macedonians ruler Alexander the Great at the Battle of Gaugamela, and in October, Babylon fell to the young conqueror. A native account of this invasion notes a ruling by Alexander not to enter the homes of its inhabitants.

Under Alexander, Babylon again flourished as a centre of learning and commerce. But following Alexander's death in 323 BCE in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, his empire was divided amongst his generals, and decades of fighting soon began, with Babylon once again caught in the middle.

The constant turmoil virtually emptied the city of Babylon. A tablet dated 275 BCE states that the inhabitants of Babylon were transported to Seleucia, where a palace was built, as well as a temple given the ancient name of Esagila. With this deportation, the history of Babylon comes practically to an end, though more than a century later, it was found that sacrifices were still performed in its old sanctuary. By 141 BCE, when the Parthian Empire took over the region, Babylon was in complete desolation and obscurity.

Persian Empire period

Under the Parthian, and later, Sassanid Persians, Babylon remained a province of the Persian Empire for nine centuries, until about 650 AD. It continued to have its own culture and peoples, who spoke varieties of Aramaic, and who continued to refer to their homeland as Babylon. Some examples of their cultural products are often found in the Babylonian Talmud, the Mandaean religion, and the religion of the prophet Mani.

Archaeology

thumb|right|200px|Babylon in 1932
The site at Babylon consists of a number of mounds covering an
oblong area roughly 2 kilometers by 1 kilometer, oriented north
to south totalling around 850 hectares. The site is bounded by the Euphrates River on the west, and by the remains of the ancient city walls otherwise.
Originally, the Euphrates roughly bisected the city, as is common in
the region, but the river has since shifted its course so that much of
the remains on the former western part of the city are now inundated. Some
portions of the city wall to the west of the river also remain. Several of
the sites mounds are more prominent.

These include:

• Kasr - also called Palace or Castle. It is the location of the Neo-Babylonian ziggurat Etemenanki of Nabopolassar and later Nebuchadnezzar and lies in the center of the site.

• Amran Ibn Ali - to the south and the highest of the mounds at 25 meters. It is the site of Esagila, a temple of Marduk which also contained shrines to Ea and Nabu.

• Homera - a reddish colored mound on the west side. Most of the Hellenistic remains are here.

• Babil - in the northern end of the site, about 22 meters in height. It has been extensively subject to brick robbing (or brick recycling depending on your point of view) since ancient times. It held a palace build by Nebuchadnezzar.

Occupation at the site dates back to the late 3rd millennium, finally
achieving prominence in the early 2nd millennium under the First Babylonian Dynasty and again later in the millennium under the
Kassite dynasty of Babylon. Unfortunately, almost nothing from that
period has been recovered at the site of Babylon. First, the water
table in the region has risen greatly over the centuries and artifacts
from the time before the Neo-Babylonian Empire are unavailable to
current standard archaeological methods. Secondly, the Neo-Babylonians
conducted massive rebuilding projects in the city which destroyed or
obscured much of the earlier record. Third, much of the western half of
the city is now under the Euphrates River. Fourth, Babylon has been
sacked a number of times, most notably by the Hittites and
Elamites in the 2nd millennium, then by the Neo-Assyrian Empire
and the Achaemenid Empire in the 1st millennium, after the
Babylonians had revolted against their rule. Lastly, the site has been
long mined for building materials on a commercial scale.

While knowledge of early Babylon must be pieced together from
epigraphic remains found elsewhere, such as at Uruk, Nippur, and
Haradum, information on the Neo-Babylonian city is available from
archaeological excavations and from classical sources. Babylon was
described, perhaps even visited, by a number of classical historians
including Ctesias, Herodotus, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Strabo, and Cleitarchus. These reports are of variable accuracy and some
political spin is involved but still provide useful data.

The first reported archaeological excavation of Babylon was
conducted by Claudius James Rich in 1811-12 and again in 1817.

Robert Mignan excavated at the site briefly in 1827.
William Loftus visited there in 1849.
Austen Henry Layard made some soundings during a brief visit in 1850
before abandoning the site.
Fulgence Fresnel and Julius Oppert heavily excavated Babylon from 1852
to 1854. Unfortunately, much of the result of their work was lost when
a raft containing over forty crates of artifacts sank into the Tigris river.

Henry Creswicke Rawlinson and George Smith worked there briefly
in 1854. The next excavation, a major one, was conducted by Hormuzd Rassam
on behalf of the British Museum. Work began in 1879, continuing
until 1882, and was prompted by widespread looting occurring at the site. Using
industrial scale digging in search of artifacts, Rassam recovered a large
quantity of cuneiform tablets and other finds. The zealous excavation
methods, common in those days, caused much damage to the archaeological context.

A team from the German Oriental Society led by Robert Koldewey conducted the
first scientific archaeological excavations at Babylon. The work was conducted every year between
1899 and 1917 until World War I intruded. Primary efforts of the dig involved the temple of Marduk and the
processional way leading up to it, as well as the city wall. Hundreds of recovered tablets,
as well as the noted Ishtar Gate were sent back to Germany.

Further work by the German Archaeological Institute was conducted by
Heinrich J. Lenzen in 1956 and Hansjörg Schmid 1962. The work by Lenzen
dealt primarily with the Hellenistic theatre and by Schmid with the
temple ziggurat Etemenanki.

In more recent times, the site of Babylon was excavated by G. Bergamini on
behalf of the Centro Scavi di Torino per il Medio Oriente e l'Asia and the
Iraqi-Italian Institute of Archaeological Sciences. This work began with a season of excavation
in 1974 followed by a topographical survey in 1977.

The focus was on clearing up issues raised by re-examination of the old German data.
After a decade, Bergamini returned to the site in 1987-1989.
The work concentrated on the area surrounding the Ishara and Ninurta temples in the Shu-Anna
city-quarter of Babylon.

It should be noted that during the restoration efforts in Babylon, some
amount of excavation and room clearing has been done by the Iraqi
State Organization for Antiquities and Heritage. Given the conditions
in that country the last few decades, publication of archaeological
activities has been understandably sparse at best.

Reconstruction

In 1983, Saddam Hussein started rebuilding the city on top of the old ruins (because of this, artifacts and other finds may well be under the city by now), investing in both restoration and new construction. He inscribed his name on many of the bricks in imitation of Nebuchadnezzar. One frequent inscription reads: "This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq". This recalls the ziggurat at Ur, where each individual brick was stamped with "Ur-Nammu, king of Ur, who built the temple of Nanna". These bricks became sought after as collectors' items after the downfall of Hussein, and the ruins are no longer being restored to their original state. He also installed a huge portrait of himself and Nebuchadnezzar at the entrance to the ruins, and shored up Processional Way, a large boulevard of ancient stones, and the Lion of Babylon, a black rock sculpture about 2,600 years old.

When the Gulf War ended, Saddam wanted to build a modern palace, also over some old ruins; it was made in the pyramidal style of a Sumerian ziggurat. He named it Saddam Hill. In 2003, he was ready to begin the construction of a cable car line over Babylon when the invasion began and halted the project.

An article published in April 2006 states that UN officials and Iraqi leaders have plans for restoring Babylon, making it into a cultural center.

As of May 2009, the provincial government of Babil has reopened the site to tourism.

Effects of the U.S. military

US forces under the command of General James T. Conway of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were criticised for building the military base "Camp Alpha", comprising among other facilities a helipad, on ancient Babylonian ruins following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
thumb|200px|US Marines in front of the rebuilt ruins of Babylon, 2003.
US forces have occupied the site for some time and have caused damage to the archaeological record. In a report of the British Museum's Near East department, Dr. John Curtis describes how parts of the archaeological site were levelled to create a landing area for helicopters, and parking lots for heavy vehicles. Curtis wrote that the occupation forces

A US Military spokesman claimed that engineering operations were discussed with the "head of the Babylon museum".

The head of the Iraqi State Board for Heritage and Antiquities, Donny George, said that the "mess will take decades to sort out". In April 2006, Colonel John Coleman, former chief of staff for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, offered to issue an apology for the damage done by military personnel under his command. However he claimed that the US presence had deterred far greater damage from other looters. Some antiquities were removed since creation of Camp Alpha, without doubt to be sold on the antiquities market, which is booming since the beginning of the occupation of Iraq.