Babylon (𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠KAN4.DIĜIR.RAKI Akkadian:Bābili(m); Aramaic: בבל, Babel; Arabic: بَابِل,Bābil; Hebrew: בָּבֶל, Bavel; Classical Syriac:ܒܒܠ, Bāwēl) was a key kingdom in ancientMesopotamia from the 18th to 6th centuries BCE. The city was built on the Euphrates river and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods. Babylon was originally a small Akkadian town dating from the period of the Akkadian Empirec. 2300 BC.
The town became part of a small independentcity-state with the rise of the First AmoriteBabylonian Dynasty in the nineteenth century BC. After the Amorite king Hammurabicreated a short-lived empire in the 18th century BC, he built Babylon up into a major city and declared himself its king, and southern Mesopotamia became known asBabylonia and Babylon eclipsed Nippur as its holy city. The empire waned under Hammurabi's son Samsu-iluna and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassiteand Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the short livedNeo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, although a number of scholars believe these were actually in the Assyrian capital ofNineveh. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rule of theAchaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, andSassanid empires.
It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from c. 1770 – c. 1670 BC, and again between c. 612 – c. 320 BC. It was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000.[2]Estimates for the maximum extent of its area range from 890[3] to 900 hectares (2,200 acres).[4]
The remains of the city are in present-dayHillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometres (53 mi) south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris.
The main sources of information about Babylon—excavation of the site itself, references in cuneiform texts found elsewhere in Mesopotamia, references in theBible, descriptions in classical writing (especially by Herodotus), and second-hand descriptions (citing the work of Ctesias andBerossus)—present an incomplete and sometimes contradictory picture of the ancient city even at its peak in the sixth century BC.[5]
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