Ancient Script Reveals Mysterious Location Of Legendary Hanging Garden Of Babylon

AncientPages.com - The fabled Hanging Garden of Babylon has since ancient times been recognized as one of the Seven Wonders of the World - but no trace of it has ever been found.

The location of the legendary Hanging Garden of Babylon is still one of the great mysteries from antiquity.

According to ancient myths and legends the gardens were marvelous not merely for being raised upon vaults, but also for a very innovative system for watering them.

Popularly attributed to Nebuchadnezzar II, of the 6th century B.C., they are not mentioned in any of the written sources for that king's reign, nor have they come to light in extensive excavation of his palaces in Babylon, carried out by German team over more than a quarter of century.

This raises the question whether the marvelous gardens exist only in myths and legends of the ancient people or if we have perhaps looked in the wrong places.

After 20 years of research, Dr Stephanie Dalley of Oxford University has the gathered evidence suggesting garden was created at Nineveh, 300 miles from Babylon, in the early seventh century BC.

She argues that it was built by the Assyrians in the north of Mesopotamia - modern-day Iraq - at the instigation of the Assyrian king, Sennacherib.

 

One piece of evidence is a record of description by Sennacherib of an 'unrivalled palace' and a 'wonder for all peoples'.

He describes the marvel of a water-raising screw made using a new method of casting bronze.

A recent excavation near Nineveh found traces of an aqueduct with the inscription: 'Sennacherib king of the world...   Over a great distance I had a watercourse directed to the environs of Nineveh'.

According to Dr. Dalley, the landscapes of Babylon and Nineveh support her conclusion - the flat countryside around Babylon would have made it impossible to deliver water to the raised gardens as described in classical sources.

The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon is an exciting story of detection involving legends, expert decipherment of ancient texts, and a vivid description of a little-known civilization. Recognised in ancient times as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the legendary Hanging Garden of Babylon and its location still remains a mystery steeped in shadow and puzzling myths.

In this remarkable volume Stephanie Dalley, a world expert on ancient Babylonian language, gathers for the first time all the material on this enigmatic World Wonder. Tracing the history of the Garden, Dalley describes how the decipherment of an original text and its link to sculpture in the British Museum has enabled her to pin down where the Garden was positioned and to describe in detail what it may have looked like. Through this dramatic and fascinating reconstruction of the Garden, Dalley
is also able to follow its influence on later garden design.

Like a palimpsest, Dalley unscrambles the many legends that have built up around the Garden, including the parts played by Semiramis and Nebuchadnezzar, and following the evolution of its design, she shows why this Garden deserves its place alongside the Pyramids and the Colossus of Rhodes as one of the most astonishing technical achievements of the ancient world. Read more

 

The gardens were just as beautiful as real. Image credits: Brian Giberson

 

A bas relief showing that Nineveh might be the more likely site of the garden.

Dr Dalley suggests that after Assyria conquered Babylon in 689BC, the Assyrian capital Nineveh may have been seen as the 'New Babylon', which could have created the confusion.

Earlier research showed that after Sennacherib conquered Babylon, he renamed all the gates of Nineveh after the names used for Babylon's city gates.

Hanging Garden may in fact have been depicted in a bas-relief from Sennacherib's palace in Nineveh, which shows trees growing on a roofed colonnade as described in classical accounts of the 'Babylon' gardens.

See also:

Secrets Of Ark of The Covenant Revealed In Ancient Manuscript

10 Mysterious Ancient Manuscripts With Hidden Secrets

Mysterious Ancient Vinca Culture And Its Undeciphered Script

Iraq’s Ancient Kish City Survived The Great Flood – Today It’s Neglected And Lies Buried In Sand

"It has taken many years to find the evidence to demonstrate that the gardens and associated system of aqueducts and canals were built by Sennacherib at Nineveh and not by Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon,' Dr Dalley says.

'For the first time it can be shown that the Hanging Gardens really did exist.'

The Mystery Of The Hanging Garden Of Babylon by Stephanie Dalley is published by Oxford University Press.

© AncientPages.com