Wonders of the Ancient World: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

First mentioned by a Babylonian priest around 280BC, the Hanging Gardens are one of the most mysterious of the ancient wonders, as historians are not certain whether they ever even existed. According to legend, King Nebuchadnezzar II(Ruled from 602-562BC) of Babylon married Queen Amytis who came from Media, a land of hills and valleys quite different from the banks of the Euphraties where babylon stood. Seeing that his wife was homesick the King built the Hanging Gardens and filled them with plants imported from her homeland. They are described by Greek writers as terraced gardens between 54 and 88 feet high feed by a intricate irrigation system with lush vegetation spilling over the sides. While certainly a nice story, there is a major problem; chronicals of Babylonian history never mention Nebuchadnezzar II building any gardens or monumental buildings despite thoroughly recording his other deeds. Further more, there is no convincing evidence for large terraced gardens in Babylon(though some researchers have speculated at possible sites). Besides simply being a legend, one explanation put forward is that the origional writers made a mistake and attributed the Hanging Gardens to the wrong city. In fact some of the ancient Greek writers claim a Syrian King was responsible which has led some scholars to claim The Hanging Gardens were built by the Assyrian King Sennacherib, but that is a separate story.

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