That city’s sins are piled up as high as heaven.
God has not forgotten the wrongs she has done.
(Revelations 18.5.)
Babylon: a city existing between myth and reality, notorious for its decadent opulence and hubris that challenged the Almighty. But Babylon is not simply a symbol counterpoised to Judaism & Christianity. It was a real city with its own myths and history, intersecting with figures such as Nebuchadnezzar II, Alexander, and Cyrus the Great. The Biblical phantom has permeated the imagination, stimulating artists from the Medieval to Renaissance eras and still occupying a prominent place today. As travellers pass through the reconstructed Ishtar gate, how many stop to ask where this gate originally led to?
'The Tower of Babel', Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1563)
The Biblical account of the foundation of Babylon starts with Nimrod (נִמְרוֹד), son of Cush and grandson of Noah. Genesis attributes to him the dominion of Babylon, Uruk, and Akkad, the three centres of Mesopotamian early civilisation. He is also said to be the father of Azurad in Jubilees, making him an ancestor of Abraham’s and thus of all Jews.
It may seem somewhat contradictory that the founder of the eventual scourge of Judaism should be a Jewish ancestor, but by creating this genealogical link, perhaps the eventual destruction of the First Temple (586 BC) can be in some way explained. Afterall, one could interpret it as the result of a past rebellion, an abandonment of God and religious dogma rooted in the rebellion of “the first on earth to be a mighty man” (Genesis 10:8–12), whose very name is connected to the Hebrew לִמְרֹד (limrod) – "to rebel".
It was he, Nimrod, who first built the tower, “a tower that reaches to the heavens”, an affront to God in its sheer scale and the work of a single-tongued people who sought to “make a name for [themselves]”. Here, the whole world had gathered, and “there the Lord confused the language of the whole world” so that we became scattered throughout the earth, no longer in mutual understanding and unity. (All quotes from Genesis 11:1-9)
Babylon is thus the source of conflict and difference in history. There, we first united under a common goal, under one tongue, under the watch of one God; there, we were separated, differentiated, and alienated, under the will of one God.
The tower of Babel (בָּבֶל, confusion) also marks the creation of a division between the pious and infidel. Those who stayed there worshipped other gods, gave them offerings, and were condemned. Those who spread throughout the surface of the earth, building temples to God, and founding the holy city of Jerusalem were the blessed. Much like in Augustine’s City of God, two locations now divided the damned and the blessed. Yet these two places, opposites in terms of holiness, were not isolated from each other.
In 586 BC, under the attack of the king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar II, Jerusalem and The First Temple were destroyed, marking one of the greatest tragedies in Jewish history. What did the Jews do to retaliate? A prophecy:
Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms,
the pride and glory of the Babylonians,
will be overthrown by God
like Sodom and Gomorrah.
(Isaiah 13:19)
But how did the Babylonians view their own city? Our modern name of the city comes from the Greek βαβυλών (Babylōn), while the Babylonians called their city 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 (Bābilim), "the gate of God". Their foundation, as with many ancient cities, was linked to a higher power. Their guardian deity was Marduk, also known as Bel, the founder champion of the city that helped restore cosmic order through the destruction of Tiamat and her eleven creatures. Tiamat’s corpse was used by Marduk to create the Heavens and the Earth, and the gods who supported her were made into humanity by Ea, goddess of wisdom.
Babylon is established as the all-important centre in the cosmic order through its association with Marduk. Their fate and lustre were entangled, Marduk being foregrounded as the creator god in the 𒂊𒉡𒈠𒂊𒇺 (Enūma Eliš), "When On High", the Babylonian account of creation. But Marduk was not always the highest divinity: he is rarely mentioned in ancient Sumerian and Akkadian texts, being at most a footnote to the greater polytheistic pantheon. His narrative rebirth thus marks the increasing importance of the city.
Towering above myriad temples, statues, and the throng of life, the 𒂍𒋼𒀭𒆠 (Etemenanki), Temple of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth, is by far the grandest sight in the city. The Etemenanki was an ascending pyramidal structure, known as a ziggurat, of seven levels with a temple to Marduk at its summit. It did not serve an entirely sacerdotal role, being also a hub for commerce and administration. It was the centre of the city much like Babylon was the centre of the world.
Astronomers climbed the tower daily to measure the movement of the heavenly bodies, recording them in the most complete astronomical records of ancient Mesopotamia. From there, one could view the Esagila, the main temple complex of Marduk, with his colossal aureal statue and the tax-exempt priests performing their rites. One could hear too the thousand-tongued hubbub. It was the sound of the whole world come to one city, trading, talking, working together: a true city of Babel.
(reconstructed) Babylon, Iraq
The physical city of Babylon has its roots quite separate from the mythical origins of the Bible or When On High. It was originally a small city on the periphery of Sumer, overshadowed by the far larger and older cities of Uruk and Akkadia, centres of the Akkadian empire. The city expanded and rose to prominence under the rule of the sixth Amorite king, Hammurabi (c 1792- 50 BC), who made Babylon the capital of the Old Babylonian Empire.
Through conquer and expansion, Babylon grew in power, becoming the most powerful city in Mesopotamia. It was a jewel fought over throughout the second millennium BC. Hittites, Kassites, Chaldeans, Aramaeans and Assyrians all warred and vied for the city.
But it was the rule of the Chaldeans that brought the city to its peak. Nebuchadnezzar II brought about the golden age of Babylon, building walls forty feet tall upon which chariots could race through, overlooking any multitudinous swathes reduced to the size of ants. He built the Ishtar Gate with the wealth of conquered cities, spreading the belief of Marduk along with fear. During this period, Babylon was the most populous city in the world and gained even greater renown. Nebuchadnezzar had inscribed his name onto the annals of history, complementing this by his inscription onto the very brick of the city.
Legends of Babylon spread far beyond Mesopotamia, reaching Greece and being recorded in Herodotus’ Histories, and later, when it had lost all its lustre, the account of historians in the Roman Empire such as Flavius Josephus’. Contemporary accounts mention Babylon’s Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the Classical world, but no trace of such gardens have been found except in Nineveh, 300 miles away. There is also no exact date for the construction of the tower. Once again, myth seeps into history, blurring the real and the unreal.
Two other great names intersect with the city before its fall into centuries-long obscurity. The first is Cyrus, who conquered the city in 539 BC by carrying out an absurd and ingenious plan. He directed the flow of the Euphrates, lowering the water level to the point that a small guard of his Immortals could enter the city unnoticed and kill the king, the streets being filled with carnival revelry as power silently shifted hands. Cyrus embraced Babylonian custom, not imposing Zoroastrianism, but liberating the Jews in captivity and placing his son Belshazzar as regent to receive the annual ceremonial humiliation before the chief priest of Marduk. Cyrus continued in his inexorable expansion, Babylon being a small jewel in the crown of the Achaemenid Emperor.
Much the same could be said about Alexander, who conquered Babylon in 331 BC. By this point, the city had largely decayed. It was no longer the teeming hub of the world as many of the buildings had fallen into ruin, the priests had lost their tax-immunity under new rulers and the Tower had fallen into disrepair. Alexander was stunned at the decay and attempted to give the city back some of its prestige with his immense wealth. However, he died in this very city (323 BC) before he could fulfill his plans, after turning back from it at the behest of his homesick troops before the prospect of fighting the Nanda Empire.
So it was that with the death of this greatest of conquerors, Babylon gradually sunk into the swelling river of time...
That is until it was rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1800s. Sadly, most of the ancient city had been lost and its bones used to construct new mudbrick houses by new settlers long after the flesh had rotten. The 1987 reconstructions of Hassan Hussein did little to assuage the loss. They did light fires in the hearts of conservationists across the globe, as this new touristy Babylon apparently did not need to be faithful to the original. Further iconoclasm occurred at the hands of a group of soldiers who occupied the city’s ruins during the US invasion of Iraq.
The city’s corpse could not get enough beating, it seems, but its legacy remains indelible.
[Cover image: Ishtar Gate]
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