Chasing the Hanging Gardens of Babylon!

The hanging gardens of Babylon were elusive when it came to a concrete history. With no traces as to the location of the famed hanging gardens, this Babylonian wonder remained a favourite topic amongst historians and researchers, and for common people alike. But the discovery of historian Dr. Stephanie Dalley seems to have succeeded in providing an alternative theory regarding the Babylonian gardens.

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 The Neo-Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar ll was thought to have built the gardens for his wife, Queen Amytis. He ruled between 605 BC and 562 BC, and left a lot of inscriptions behind, which interestingly, did not mention anything about the floating gardens, or its majestic engineering. Nor are there any mention about his wife, Amytis. Historian Josephus, while attributing it to King Nebuchadnezzar, borrowed from the accounts of the priest Berossus. Apart from this account, other historians, like Diodorus, and Quintus, talked about a 'Syrian king', while Strabos' accounts talked about the engineering which made it possible to water the gardens from the Euphrates. Dr. Stephanie Dalley, one of the very few people who can read 'cuneiform', made some exciting revelations which helps in putting the pieces of the puzzle together, as well as account for the absence of any historical evidence of the hanging gardens. She scanned the north of the site, and concentrated on Nineveh (now near Mosul), which was the capital of the Assyrian ruler, Sennacherib (704-681 BC). The hanging gardens of Nineveh, with its fruit orchards and elaborate mechanisms which were used to water the gardens are well-documented, and even the king himself mentions it. The recent excavation also managed to unearth the ancient aquaducts. So there is a very strong possibility that Sennacherib, not Nebuchadnezzar, was behind the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon! The term 'babylon' was common in those days as they meant 'Gates of the Gods', and researchers are of the view that perhaps Sennacherib named the Hanging Gardens of Nineveh the same, which has led to this confusion for centuries!

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These are just initial developments of an ancient mystery. While we cannot exactly say when this elaborate puzzle will start to make sense, but what's wrong in being a little hopeful, right?

Post Written by - Lopamudra