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Artist's conception ~ a procession through the Ishtar Gate of Babylon
with the Hanging Gardens in the background
According to ancient Greek writers, one of the wonders of the world was an enormous ‘hanging' or terraced garden. One description says it was built by a king to please his wife who missed the wooded hillsides of her native land. The king has been identified with Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 B.C.) who married a Median (Iranian) princess. Nebuchadnezzar certainly rebuilt his capital of Babylon on a grand scale but none of his inscriptions mention such a garden. A large area of Babylon was excavated by German archaeologists at the beginning of the twentieth century and nothing has been discovered to support the idea that the Hanging Gardens were in Babylon proper. Indeed, many Greek writers imply that the Hanging Gardens were not in Babylon at all.
However, the inscriptions of the Assyrian king Sennacherib (704-681 B.C.) describe in detail how he diverted several mountain streams to bring water on an aqueduct into his garden at Nineveh, raising it to the top of the garden by means of bronze screws, and building artificial hills upon stone vaults. This garden was built for his Queen Tashmetum-sharrat. He described it as a wonder for all peoples. This, therefore, may be the origin of the story of the Hanging Gardens and many details of Sennacherib's inscriptions confirm the later Greek accounts.
Whatever the origin of the story of the Hanging Gardens, parks and landscaped gardens were a very important part of ancient Near Eastern royal building projects. Indeed, the Persian word for garden gives us the word ‘paradise'. Exotic gardens continued to be a feature of Arab culture for centuries.
Background made by Samarcande Bahktiari. You can visit The Kilim Bazaar by clicking on the plaque above.
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