- Location

• LocationOn the east bank of the River Euphrates,

about 50 km south of Baghdad, Iraq

• Year's Built: 605 BC.

THE HANGING GARDENS

MAWKIB ST.

ROYAL CITY

NEW CITY

LEGENDARY BABYLON TOWER

- Site Plan

Tower of Babel

- History

Nebuchadnezzar

(605 BC -625)

• According to accounts, the gardens were built to cheer up Nebuchadnezzar's homesick wife, Amyitis. Amyitis, daughter of the king of the Medes, was married to Nebuchadnezzar to create an alliance between the nations. The land she came from, though, was green, rugged and mountainous, and she found the flat, sun-baked terrain of Mesopotamia depressing. The king decided to recreate her homeland by building an artificial mountain with rooftop gardens.

- History

The Hanging Gardens probably did not really "hang" in the sense of being suspended from cables or ropes. The name comes from an inexact translation of the Greek word kremastos or the Latin word pensilis, which mean not just "hanging", but "overhanging“

as in the case of a terrace or balcony.  

- Description

• "It consists of vaulted terraces raised one above another, and resting upon cube-shaped pillars. These are hollow and filled with earth to allow trees of the largest size to be planted. The pillars, the vaults, and terraces are constructed of baked brick and asphalt."

Hanging gardens from inside

- Description

• "The ascent to the highest story is by stairs, and at their side are water engines, by means of which persons, appointed expressly for the purpose, are continually employed in raising water from the Euphrates into the garden."

Irrigation system

- Irrigation system A chain pump is two large wheels, one above the other, connected by a chain.On the chain are hung buckets. Below the bottom wheel is a pool with the water source. As the wheel is turned,the buckets dip into the pool andpick up water. The chain then lifts themto the upper wheel, where the buckets are tipped and dumped into an upper pool.The chain then carries the empty ones

back down to be refilled.

Construction of the gardens was not only complicated by the need to get water to the top of the gardens, but also by the fact that the water would destroy the foundation if it were allowed to reach the bricks. Since stone was hard to find on the Mesopotamian Plain, most of the architecture in Babylon was made out of brick. The bricks were composed of clay mixed with chopped straw, which were then baked in the sun. The bricks were joined with bitumen, a slimy substance that acts like glue between the bricks. These bricks quickly dissolved when soaked with water.

- A Problem

For most buildings in Babylon this was not a problem because rain was rare. However, the gardens were continually exposed to water and the foundation had to be protected. They protected it by putting sheets of lead under the dirt so the water that drenched through the dirt would not rot the foundation.

F

How big were the gardens??

In any case the gardens were an amazing sight: A green, leafy,

artificial mountain rising off the plain.

But id it actually exist?

• Koldewey unearthed many of its features including the outer walls, inner walls, foundation of Etemenanki, the original of the "Tower of Babel", Nebuchadnezzar's palaces and the wide processional roadway which passed through the heart of the city.

• Koldewey discovered a basement with fourteen large rooms with stone arch ceilings.

• a room was unearthed with three large, strange holes in the floor.

• Koldewey concluded this had been the location of the chain pumps that raised the water to the garden's roof.

• Koldewey discovered many of the features reported by the ancient Greek historian Diodorus.

Robert Johann Koldewey

)1855-1925(

Wherever the location of the gardens were, we can only wonder if Queen Amyitis was happy with her fantastic present, or if she continued to pine for the green mountains

of her homeland.

Babylon ToDay

• Seven Wonders Of The Ancient World By Lee Krystek

• The Hanging Gardens of Babylon By Susan Barry • Wonderclub.com• The Hanging Gardens of Babylon By Reina Z,

Elisa L, Andrea G

- References

Thank you