#Introduction The Hanging Garden of Babylon.
As the story goes, the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar II decided to build a garden for his homesick
wife, Amytis of Media.
Amytis, was home sick, longing for the lush beautiful vegetation and grand mountains of
her home country.
And after marrying Nebuchadnezzar II, Amytis now found herself surrounded by the broad
plains, reedy marshlands and arid deserts, far from what she was used to.
The Hanging Garden of Babylon, was an effort from Nebuchadnezzar II to please, or at the
very least, ease Amytis’s yearning for her home country.
The garden itself was quite impressive, it was 75 foot tall, with lush vegetation cascading
like waterfalls.
Exotic plants, herbs and flowers filled the garden, producing a beautiful aroma that just
really stuck with you.
Towering statues, tall stone columns and imposing terraces dotted the garden.
And to top it all off, an impressive irrigation system made sure all the plants were more
than taken care of.
It’s only fitting that such an impressive structure became known as one of the 7 wonders
of the ancient world.
But there’s one aspect of the Hanging garden that separates it from the other wonders,
and it’s not something good.
While the other wonders have easily traceable and definitive evidence proving their existence,
the Hanging Garden of Babylon does not.
Ever since the 20th century, archeologists have been looking for evidence, or at the
very least a sign that there was a Hanging Garden in Babylon.
And even till this day, they have been unsuccessful.
And this had led to a major question, did the Hanging Garden of Babylon actually exist?
#Unreliability Our knowledge of the Hanging garden stems
from second hand accounts, written centuries after the garden was allegedly destroyed.
Many of the accounts drew upon the work of even earlier historians and writers, works
that don’t even exist anymore.
What’s even more interesting is that Babylonian texts from the time of Nebuchadnezzar II,
that did exist, never actually mentioned any hanging or elevated garden.
And in the writing of Greek Historian Hirodotus, there were no mentions of any remarkable garden
in Babylon.
Even though it was written just a century after the time of Nebuchadnezzar II.
Leading to the conclusion that the garden was either really insignificant, or it simply
didn’t exist.
And this was the conclusion that many people came to, regarding the Hanging Garden.
But there’s a recent theory that aims to explain the existence of the Hanging Garden
of Babylon, and the mystery that surrounds it.
A theory that could possibly change everything, and it all starts with Stephanie Dalley.
#New Theory Stephanie Dalley is a retired research fellow
at the Oriental Institute, at the university of Oxford.
She asserts that the reason no Hanging garden has been found, was because there never was
one in Babylon.
In her theory, she proposes that the actual Hanging Garden is located 300 miles (482 km)
north of Babylon, at the city of Nineveh.
The capital of the now dissolved Assyrian empire.
While it existed, the Assyrian empire was a rival to the Babylonian empire.
And at one point, did manage to successfully conquer Babylon.
During that period of conquest, Nineveh became known as the new Babylon, and the city entrances
were renamed after the entrances in Babylon.
Stephanie Dalley explains that there’s a possible confusion, in which Babylon the ancient
texts actually referred to when talking about the talking Hanging Garden of Babylon, because
at one point Nineveh was also known as a Babylon as well.
And to add more weight to her theory, there is some very compelling evidence in Nineveh
suggesting the existence of a Hanging garden.
In the royal palace, in Nineveh, there are bas-reliefs or wall sculptures depicting a
lush garden being watered by an aqueduct, kinda similar to the Hanging garden of Babylon.
In the ancient texts of Assyrian King Sennacherib, there are extensive mentions of an ‘unrivaled
palace’, and a ‘wonder for all people’.
He also heavily mentions a water raising screw, similar to an archimedes screw.
A tool used to move water vertically.
Coupled with the discovery of an extensive aqueduct system, during an excavation in Nineveh,
it seems that all the pieces just point towards Stephanie Dalley’s theory being correct.
Could the Hanging Garden of Babylon really be in Nineveh instead?
#Conclusion There is a lot of Romanticism surrounding
the Hanging Garden of Babylon.
It’s a fantastical structure, unique in its design and the amount of beautiful exotic
plants that filled it.
It has a beautiful story about a king going out of his way to create a place, where his
queen could feel at home.
But in reality, there’s a lot of uncertainty and mystery surrounding the Hanging Garden.
From its origin, location or existence, one cannot say if it's real or simply a writer’s
imagination.
To me the word wonder, refers to something that is marvelous or phenomenal, even if it’s
something that never existed.
Even if the Hanging Garden of Babylon wasn’t real, that there wasn’t a beautiful structure
with plants cascading like waterfalls or a story about a king and a queen, just the idea
of it, is enough to make the Hanging Garden of Babylon a wonder for me.
And I want to know if you feel the same way?
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