3156–3199 AM · 605 BCE — 562 BCE · world history
The Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar
Babylon becomes the greatest city in the world, with the Ishtar Gate and a ziggurat reaching for the sky.
Having crushed Assyria and Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar II makes Babylon the world's capital: double walls, the blue-glazed Ishtar Gate with its golden bulls and dragons, and the ziggurat Etemenanki, likely model for the biblical tower. Ancient writers credited him with the Hanging Gardens. He also destroyed Jerusalem and exiled its people.
Sources
Documents of the period
- cuneiform chronicles and king lists — the Babylonian chronicles and the building inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar II
Scholarship
- archaeology of Mesopotamia — the Ishtar Gate (Pergamon Museum), the city walls and the foundation of the Etemenanki ziggurat
Basis: documents and evidence.