Babylon
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How it came to be
Babylon lies 85 km south of Baghdad. Early in the 2nd millennium BC it was a small city-state, until Hammurabi (r. 1792–1750 BC) united southern Mesopotamia and made it his capital. Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite rule followed, and from 626 to 539 BCE it was the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilt the city and raised the Ishtar Gate. Babylon has long been linked with the Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders, though whether they existed is disputed.
The city fell to Cyrus of Persia in 539 BC, and in 323 BC Alexander the Great died in Nebuchadnezzar's palace. The last known habitation dates from the 11th century AD. Excavation began in 1842; from 1879 to 1882 the site was dug on behalf of the British Museum, and from 1899 the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft carried out the first systematic excavations, which revealed much of the ancient city's layout.
Babylon was first considered for the World Heritage List in 1983 but was referred back so that a safeguarding plan could be prepared. From 1978 buildings were reconstructed on top of the ruins, and the Marduk Gate was rebuilt with modern fired bricks and cement mortar. These changes were made worse by military use of the site: Camp Alpha, used by United States and Polish forces, covered more than 150 hectares of the inner archaeological site. Babylon was inscribed in 2019.
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