Hanging Gardens of Babylon

By: Madison BarochHanging Gardens of Babylon

1Why was it made?King Nebuchadnezzar II created the Gardens for his homesick wife, Amyitis, who came from Medes where it is green and mountainous. She thought the dry, flat land of Mesopotamia was depressing. Nebuchadnezzar built the Hanging Gardens to remind his queen of her homeland.

2 The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

3The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

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The Hanging Gardens contained many exotic plants and animals.

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What did they look like? We are unsure however what the Gardens actually looked like, but many artists have used their imaginations to show us what they think they looked like. Herodotus, a historian, wrote that the gardens outer walls were 80 feet thick, 320 feet tall, 56 miles long, and wide enough for a four-horse chariot to turn. 6 The plants werent really hanging though. They were really just sitting on terraces and balconies which gave the illusion that the plants were hanging. They got the word hanging from the mistranslation of the Greek word kremastos or the Latin word pensilis which not only mean hanging but also overhanging.

7How were they watered? The Hanging Gardens were watered by what is called a chain pump. It had two large wheels, one on top of the other. They were connected by a chain. On the chain were buckets which were continuously dipped into water and dumped into a pool on the top terrace. There were channels leading from the pool that led throughout the garden and watered all the plants.

8When they were discoveredRobert Koldewey, a German archaeologist, in 1899 dug on the Babel site for fourteen years. He unearthed many of its features including the outer walls, inner walls, foundation of the Tower of Babel, Nebuchadnezzars palaces, and the wide processional roadway that led through the city. Then one day while excavating the Southern Citadel, Koldewey came across a basement with fourteen large rooms with stone arch ceilings. This made Koldewey believe that he had found the cellar of the Hanging Gardens. Finally he discovered a room with three large holes in the floor. So Koldewey concluded that this had been the location of the chain pumps.

9How was the structure kept intact? If Nebachadnezzar didnt have some type of drain in the gardens the structure probably wouldnt be here today. Archaeologists are still trying to find out where and if the gardens had drains.

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11 Were they real? Some people say that the gardens werent even real, they say that the gardens could have been just a figment of Greek poets imaginations. They question if one of the seven wonders of the ancient world even existed. But archaeologists have proof that they did in fact exist. If they didnt would we have the ruins of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon still today?

12Today's Inspiration Though there are many mysteries concerning the Hanging Gardens of Babylon one things for sure, the gardens are an archaeologists dream come true and the inspiration of many artists paintings.

13References Babylon: The Hanging Gardens of Semiramis. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLlroENeNHk

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. (2010). Retrieved March 20, from http://www.Hanginggardensofbabylon.org

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, from http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/worldhistory/hanginggardens1.htm

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. (2001). Retrieved March 20, from http://www.angelfire.com/ny/anghockey/hanginggardens.html

7 Wonders of the World. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, from http://library.thinkquest.org/J002388/babylon.html

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