Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are thought to have been built in the ancient city of Babylon. Even though there is no proof that they actually existed, they are considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is called the Hanging Gardens because the gardens were built high above the ground on multi-level stone terraces. The plants weren’t rooted in the earth like a traditional garden. If it existed it was likely the most beautiful man-made gardens ever created.
Interesting Facts:
The Hanging Gardens are the only one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world that may not even have existed.
There is no documentation in Babylonian sources that the gardens ever existed. There is also no solid archaeological evidence that they existed.
Several ancient Roman and Greek writers wrote about the gardens. They wrote about why they were built, how they were built, and the size of the gardens. They even described how the gardens were watered. They didn’t all agree on why they were built or who they were built for.
The most popular theory is that the gardens were built by king Nebuchadnezzar II to make his wife happy. She was homesick for the plants and gardens of her homeland.
King Nebuchadnezzar II ruled Babylon from 605BC, for a period of 43 years. It was during this time that he is said to have had the Hanging Gardens built.
If the gardens actually existed, it would have taken 8,200 gallons of water each day to keep the plants watered.
The gardens were thought to be about 75 feet high. The water would have had to have been carried up or transported to the top of the gardens by a primitive water irrigation system.
There are many clay tablets that exist from the time period when the Hanging Gardens would have existed. None of these ancient tablets mention the Hanging Gardens.
Many believe that if the gardens did exist they would have been located south of Bagdad in Iraq.
Some historians and archaeologists believe that the gardens did exist and were destroyed by war and erosion. Some believe it was earthquakes that eventually devastated and destroyed the gardens.
In the Hanging Gardens’, the plants did not actually hang. They grew from many different levels of terraces (similar to balconies).
The word hanging’ comes from the Latin word pensilis’ or the translation of the Greek word kremastos’. It actually means overhanging instead of just hanging.
A Greek historian named Diordorus Siculus described the gardens as being 400 feet wide by 400 feet long. He also said that the walls were more than 80 feet high.
Between 1899 and 1917 a German archaeologist Robert Koldewey may have unearthed the Hanging Gardens. What he unearthed resembled what Diordorus Siculus had described. In the bottom of the hanging gardens’ there were three strange holes in the floor that would have worked well for a chain pump irrigation system. This would have made it possible to irrigate the plants.
Recent excavations have found traces of aqueducts near Nineveh, which would have supported such a garden. Nineveh is 300 miles away from Babylon.
