Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Location: City State of Babylon (Modern Iraq)
Built: Around 600 BC
Function: Royal Gardens
Destroyed: Earthquake, 2nd Century BC
Size: Height probably 80 ft. (24m)
Made of: Mud brick waterproofed with lead.
Other: Some archeologists suggest that the actual location was not in Babylon, but 350 miles to the north in the city of Nineveh.

The city of Babylon, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, must have been a wonder to the ancient traveler's eyes. "In addition to its size," wrote Herodotus, a Greek historian in 450 BC, "Babylon surpasses in splendor any city in the known world."

Herodotus claimed the outer walls were 56 miles in length, 80 feet thick and 320 feet high. Wide enough, he said, to allow two four-horse chariots to pass each other. The city also had inner walls which were "not so thick as the first, but hardly less strong." Inside these double walls were fortresses and temples containing immense statues of solid gold. Rising above the city was the famous Tower of Babel, a temple to the god Marduk, that seemed to reach to the heavens.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS
Recent archaeological excavations of the palace in Iraq have uncovered evidence of a building with vaults and a well nearby. However, the location of the palace complex contradicts where Greek historians placed the Hanging Gardens, which was on the banks of the Euphrates River. The palace excavations are simply too far away. There is promising news, though. There have been recent excavations on the banks of the Euphrates River of some substantial 25 meter-thick walls.