The Hanging Gardens Of Babylon

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(Painted in the 19th century - Artist Unknown)
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Babylon was a major kingdom located in the ancient region of Mesopotamia, we know it today as Northern Iraq, around 50 miles south of Baghdad.

Babylon existed in the 18th century BC and there is a lot of things about this city that I would like to look into further, but today I have to stay focused on the matter at hand, so we head back to the 7th century BC in order to begin our rummages about the Hanging Gardens and find out how much of a Wonder they really were.

King Nebuchadnezzar II

The eldest son of his successor, King Nebuchadnezzar II reigned over Babylon from 620BC until the empire was conquered by 'Cyrus The Great of Persia' in 539BC.

After securing himself as King, he set about improving his city and palace by initiating his masterplan of rebuilding and fortifying the city.

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By this time, Babylon had expanded to become the largest city in Southern Mesopotamia, a major player in power and control. Babylon was the place to be. Home to over 200,000 people, the city provided security, and through that it provided many citizens with chances to become wealthy from trade and new business opportunities.

Once King Nebuch. began his building, it encouraged many more labourers from other lands to move into the city for better work opportunities, this added further to the expansion and diversity of the city.

Everything was booming, the King's reign was going well, high walls and security gates had been erected, order was maintained within the city, the King couldn't be more happier at this time of progress. But his wife, Amytis felt very different indeed.

Amytis

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Amytis was the daughter of King of Medes. She was forced to marry in order to form an Alliance between the Median dynasties and Babylonian. She came from a green land, full of forests and mountains but the marriage had brought her to city life, and surrounding that life was plain and boring desertland. It was hot, dry, and to her very boring. Every day she missed her homeland. Eventually this prolonged homesickness turned into depression. It got so bad she no longer left her bed, let alone the room. She lived in the dark. Often refusing to eat, she became sickly and withered.

In an attempt to cheer her up, King Nebuchadnezzar decided to turn the palace into an oasis, a place that represented Amytis's homelands.

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He set himself straight to work and built a mountain. Putting Labourers to work with strict control by his guards, he had people hauling tonnes of soil and sand until he had created a massive mound of earth in which to build on.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were constructed.

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The Greek geographer Strabo described the gardens in first century BC:

"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.

A pillared walkway roofed with layers of matting and soil so that trees grew above it.

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."

The Overhanging Gardens

The hanging gardens didn't actually hang, rather they were overhanging across and along multiple levels and surfaces. Exotic plants, trees and other greenary were draped all around the newly designed streets and temples, which the King designed himself as he created his masterpiece.

Estimated at 400 x 400 feet and 80 metres tall, they became the most magnificent gardens ever to have been known, they provided a paradise oasis in the middle of a desert, and were the very first version of the hydroponic garden.

Water was not the easiest thing to come by in those desert lands, it barely rained...but there was a river (Euphrates) nearby.

The water would have been transported by a pumping system made up from reeds and stones. Water would have been pumping from the river to a huge tank into a manually operated water-lifting device called a Shaduf. It is a large pole that balances on a crossbeam, with a heavy counter weight on one side and a rope and bucket on the other. It was a feat of engineering back in the day!

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Water would be hoisted up by chain pumps, (two large wheels, one above the other, with buckets on chains that go round and round as someone turns the handle of the pump), and distributed efficiently down and across the gardens. This in itself created more jobs and it required many people to manually operate this whole procedure.

Based on the sheer size and scale of the gardens, estimates suggest that it would have taken 8,200 gallons of water each day to keep the plants watered.

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