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90 kilometers from Baghdad are the ruins of Ancient Babylon. The city has long ceased to exist, but even today the ruins testify to its grandeur. In the 7th century BC. Babylon was the largest and richest city of the Ancient East. There were many amazing structures in Babylon, but most striking were the hanging gardens of the royal palace - gardens that became a legend.

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Legend associates the creation of the famous gardens with the name of the Assyrian queen Semiramis. Diodorus and other Greek historians say that she built the “Hanging Gardens” in Babylon. True, until the beginning of our century, the “Hanging Gardens” were considered pure fiction, and their descriptions were simply excesses of poetic imagination.

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Semiramis herself, or rather, her biography, was the first to contribute to this. Semiramis (Shammuramat) is a historical figure, but her life is legendary. Ctesias preserved her detailed biography, which Diodorus later repeated almost verbatim.

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The girl was saved by pigeons: they warmed her with their wings, carried milk in their beaks, and when the girl grew up, they brought her cheese. The shepherds noticed hollowed-out holes in the cheese, followed the trail of the pigeons and found a lovely child. They took the girl and took her to the caretaker of the royal herds, Simmas. “He made the girl his daughter, gave her the name Semiramis, which means “dove” among the people of Syria, and raised her approximately. She surpassed everyone in her beauty.” This became the key to her future career.

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During a trip to these parts, Onnes, the first royal adviser, saw Semiramis and immediately fell in love with her. He asked Simmas for her hand and, taking her to Nineveh, made her his wife. She bore him two sons. “Since, in addition to beauty, she had all the virtues, she had complete power over her husband: he did nothing without her, and he succeeded in everything.”

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Then the war with neighboring Bactria began, and with it the dizzying career of Semiramis... King Nin went to war with a large army: “with 1,700,000 foot, 210,000 horsemen and 10,600 war chariots.” But even with such large forces, the warriors of Nineveh could not conquer the capital of Bactria. Not a friend heroically repelled all the attacks of the Ninevites, and Onnes, unable to do anything, began to be burdened by the current situation. Then he invited his beautiful wife to the battlefield. The dizzying career of Semiramis

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“When setting out on the journey,” writes Diodorus, “she ordered a new dress to be sewn for herself,” which is quite natural for a woman. However, the dress was not entirely ordinary: firstly, it was so elegant that it determined the fashion among society ladies of that time; secondly, it was sewn in such a way that it was impossible to determine who was wearing it - a man or a woman.

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Arriving at her husband, Semiramis studied the battle situation and found that the king always attacked the weakest part of the fortifications in accordance with military tactics and common sense. But Semiramis was a woman, which means she was not burdened with military knowledge. She called for volunteers and attacked the strongest part of the fortifications, where - according to her assumptions - there were the fewest defenders. Having easily won, she used the moment of surprise and forced the city to capitulate.

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“The king, delighted with her courage, gave her a gift and began to persuade Onnes to give in to Semiramis voluntarily, promising for this to give him his daughter Sosana as his wife. When Onnes did not want to agree, the king threatened to gouge out his eyes, for he was blind to the orders of his master. Onnes, suffering from the king's threats and love for his wife, eventually went mad and hanged himself. In this way Semiramis acquired the royal title.” Leaving an obedient governor in Bactria, Nin returned to Nineveh, married Semiramis, and she bore him a son, Ninias. After the death of the king, Semiramis began to rule, although the king had a son-heir.

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Semiramis did not marry again, although many sought her hand. And, enterprising in nature, she decided to surpass her deceased royal husband. She founded: on the Euphrates a new city - Babylon, with powerful walls and towers, a magnificent bridge over the Euphrates - “all this in one year.” Then she drained the swamps around the city, and in the city itself she built an amazing temple to the god Bel with a tower, “which was unusually high, and the Chaldeans there watched the rising and setting of the stars, for such a structure was most suitable for this.”

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She also ordered the construction of a statue of Bel, weighing 1000 Babylonian talents (equal to approximately 800 Greek talents), and erected many other temples and cities. under her, a convenient road was built through the seven ridges of the Zagros chain to Lydia, a state in the west of Asia Minor. in Lydia, she built the capital Ecbatana with a beautiful royal palace, and brought water to the capital through a tunnel from distant mountain lakes.

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Then Semiramis started a war - the first Thirty Years' War. She invaded the Median kingdom, from there she went to Persia, then to Egypt, Libya and finally to Ethiopia. Everywhere Semiramis won glorious victories and acquired new slaves for her kingdom. Only in India was she unlucky: after her first successes she lost three-quarters of her army. True, this did not affect her firm intention to win at any cost, but one day she was easily wounded in the shoulder by an arrow. Semiramis returned to Babylon on her fast horse. There a heavenly sign appeared to her that she should not continue the war, and therefore, having pacified the rage caused by the daring messages of the Indian king (he called her a lover of love affairs, but used a ruder expression), she continued to rule in peace and harmony.

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Meanwhile, Ninia became bored with her inglorious life. He decided that his mother had been ruling the country for too long, and organized a conspiracy against her: “with the help of one eunuch, he decided to kill her.” The queen voluntarily transferred power to her son, “then she went out onto the balcony, turned into a dove and flew away... straight into immortality.”

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However, a more realistic version of her life story has also been preserved. According to the Greek writer Athenaeus of Naucratis (2nd century), Semiramis was at first “an insignificant court lady at the court of one of the Assyrian kings,” but she was “so beautiful that she won the royal love with her beauty.” And soon she persuaded the king, who took her as his wife, to give her power for only five days... Having received the rod and donned the royal dress, she immediately organized a great feast, at which she won over the military leaders and all the dignitaries to her side; On the second day, she already commanded the people and noble people to give her royal honors, and threw her husband into prison. So this determined woman seized the throne and retained it until old age, performing many great deeds. A realistic point of view about the appearance of Semiramis.

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“Such are the contradictory reports of historians about Semiramis,” Diodorus concludes skeptically. And yet Semiramis was a real historical figure, although we know little about her. In addition to the famous Shammuramat, we know several more “Semiramis”. About one of them, Herodotus wrote that “she lived five human centuries before another Babylonian queen, Nitocris” (i.e. around 750 BC). Other historians call Semiramis Atossa, the daughter and co-ruler of King Beloch, who ruled at the end of the 8th century BC.

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However, the famous “Hanging Gardens” were not created by Semiramis and not even during her reign, but later, in honor of another - non-legendary - woman. They were built by order of King Nebuchadnezzar for his beloved wife Amytis, a Median princess who, in dusty Babylon, yearned for the green hills of Media. This king, who destroyed city after city and even entire states, built a lot in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar turned the capital into an impregnable stronghold and surrounded himself with luxury unparalleled even in those times. Nebuchadnezzar built his palace on an artificially created platform, raised to the height of a four-tiered structure.

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The hanging gardens were laid out in the north-eastern part of the palace, on earthen terraces resting on vaults. The vaults were supported by powerful high columns located inside each floor. The platforms of the terraces were a complex structure - at their base lay massive stone slabs with a layer of reeds covered with asphalt. Then there was a double row of bricks connected with plaster, and even higher - lead plates to retain water. The terrace itself was covered with a thick layer of fertile soil in which large trees could take root. The floors of the gardens rose in ledges and were connected by wide, gentle staircases covered with pink and white stone. Garden organization

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The height of the floors reached almost 28 meters and provided enough light for plants. Trees and seeds of rare herbs, flowers and bushes wrapped in damp matting were brought to Babylon in carts drawn by oxen. And trees of the most amazing species and beautiful flowers bloomed in extraordinary gardens. Day and night, hundreds of slaves turned a lifting wheel with leather buckets, supplying water from the Euphrates to the gardens.

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Magnificent gardens with rare trees, fragrant flowers and coolness in sultry Babylonia were truly a wonder of the world. But during the Persian rule, Nebuchadnezzar's palace fell into disrepair. It had 172 rooms (with a total area of 52,000 square meters), decorated and furnished with truly oriental luxury.

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Now the Persian kings occasionally stayed there during “inspection” trips throughout their vast empire. But in the 4th century this palace became the residence of Alexander the Great. The throne room of the palace and the chambers of the lower tier of the hanging gardens were the last place on earth of the great commander, who spent 16 years in continuous wars and campaigns and did not lose a single battle.

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The man who excavated the Hanging Gardens was the German scientist Robert Koldewey. He was born in 1855 in Germany, studied in Berlin, Munich and Vienna, where he studied architecture, archeology and art history. Before he was thirty, he managed to take part in excavations in Assos and on the island of Lesbos. In 1887 he was engaged in excavations in Babylonia, later in Syria, southern Italy, Sicily, then again in Syria. Hanging Gardens Found

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Koldewey was an extraordinary person, and in comparison with his professional colleagues, an unusual scientist. His love for archeology, a science that, according to the publications of some specialists, may seem boring, did not prevent him from studying countries, observing people, seeing everything, noticing everything, reacting to everything. Among other things, Koldewey the architect had one passion: his favorite pastime was the history of sewers. Architect, poet, archaeologist and sanitation historian - such a rare combination! And it was he who found the famous “Hanging Gardens”!

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And finally Koldewey discovered traces of a deep stone well, but a well with a strange three-stage spiral shaft. The vault was lined not only with brick, but also with stone. The totality of all the details made it possible to see in this building an extremely successful design for that time (both from the point of view of technology and from the point of view of architecture); Apparently, this structure was intended for very special purposes.

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In all the literature about Babylon, starting with ancient authors (Josephus, Diodorus, Ctesias, Strabo and others) and ending with cuneiform tablets, wherever the “sinful city” was discussed, there were only two mentions of the use of stone in Babylon, and this was especially emphasized during the construction of the northern wall of the Qasr region and during the construction of the “Hanging Gardens” of Babylon. Koldewey re-read the ancient sources again. He weighed every phrase, every line, every word; he even ventured into the alien field of comparative linguistics. In the end, he came to the conclusion that the found structure could not be anything other than the vault of the basement floor of the evergreen “hanging gardens” of Babylon, inside of which there was an amazing water supply system for those times. And suddenly it dawned on Koldewey!

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But there was no more miracle: the hanging gardens were destroyed by floods of the Euphrates, which rises 3-4 meters during floods. And now we can imagine them only from the descriptions of ancient authors and with the help of our own imagination. Even in the last century, the German traveler, member of many honorary scientific societies, I. Pfeiffer, described in her travel notes that she saw “on the ruins of El-Qasr one forgotten tree from the cone-bearing family, completely unknown in these parts. The Arabs call it atale and consider it sacred. They tell the most amazing stories about this tree (as if it was left from the “Hanging Gardens”) and they claim that they heard sad, plaintive sounds in its branches when a strong wind blows.”

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Presentation on the topic: Hanging Gardens of Semirady

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Where were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are the second of the Seven Wonders of the World and the least explored by scientists. What is known is that they were located in the legendary city of Mesopotamia (Interfluve) - Babylon, and their creator is considered to be the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC).

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Who turned Babylon into a most beautiful city? After the death of Nabopolassar in 605 BC. his son Nebochadnezzar ascended the throne. He was a successful general with many victories and a careful ruler, but above all he became famous for his outstanding building structures. During his reign, Babylon turned into the most beautiful of all cities of that time. Nebochadnezzar reconstructed Esagila - the religious center of worship of the main god of Babylon, Mardukui, and created a magnificent architectural ensemble around the temple. The Etemenaki Tower, 90m high, also dedicated to the god Marduk, later received the name Babylonian.

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Nebuchadnezzar built two magnificent royal palaces and surrounded the city with a double defensive wall. The city gates, named after the goddess of struggle and love Ishtar, were richly decorated with tiles with images of animals. According to one of the surviving cuneiforms, in Babylon there were 53 temples of the great gods, 55 small temples of the god Marduk, 300 small temples of the Earth goddess, 600 temples of the heavenly gods , 180 altars to the goddess Ishtar and 200 altars dedicated to other deities.

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When were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon created? The glory of Babylon spread far beyond the borders of the kingdom. Numerous guests from other countries poured into the city, admiring its splendor. Babylon was rapidly becoming a leading world power. Nebuchadnezzar II spent most of his 43-year reign on military campaigns. In 587. BC he destroyed Jerusalem, capturing its inhabitants into “Babylonian captivity”, and they were forced to participate in city construction. During this period, the Hanging Gardens were created.

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Why were hanging gardens created? It is believed that the Hanging Gardens were a gift from Nebuchadnezzar to his wife, a Persian princess. Legend has it that he ordered the Hanging Gardens to be erected as a consolation for his long absence and as a reminder of her distant homeland of Persia, with green valleys and forested mountains. Remains unclear , why they were named after Queen Semiramis, who lived several centuries before the creation of the gardens. Nebuchadnezzar gave the order to the soldiers - during campaigns in distant countries, dig up and collect all the plants known to them and transport them to Babylon. This is how the world's first Botanical Garden arose.

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What did the Hanging Gardens look like? Each of the numerous terraces was a separate garden, however, the ensemble was perceived as a single whole. The stems and branches of thousands of climbing and hanging plants spread to neighboring areas of the garden, forming an amazingly beautiful picturesque park - a huge green area with steep slopes covered with a wide variety of trees, shrubs and flowers. Slaves tended the garden. There were many small rivers and waterfalls everywhere, ducks and frogs lived in the ponds; Hairy bees and colorful butterflies flew from one flower to another. Against the backdrop of the dead desert surrounding Babylon, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon seemed like a real miracle created by human hands. While Babylon was languishing in the merciless heat, here everything was blooming, pleasing to the eye.

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Who discovered the ruins of Babylon? In 1899, the German archaeologist Robert Koldewey, approximately 90 km south of Baghdad in what is now Iraq, began searching for the ruins of Babylon. From the once richest city, only piles of ruins remained. Koldewey found the Tower of Babel. True, only part of the foundation remains from the gigantic structure, 90m high. Koldewey also discovered the remains of Babylon's defensive walls. But not much remained of the walls - only isolated fragments up to 12 m high and heaps of ruins. But where were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?

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What did Koldewey find under the ruins? After many years of searching, the scientist came across an amazing structure, the foundation of which consisted of 12 equal-sized narrow rooms made of cut stone. The massive baked brick ceilings were obviously designed to withstand heavy loads. The walls and columns were up to 7m thick. Directly under the arch was a fountain. Koldewey knew that cut stones were used in the Tower of Babel and in the Hanging Gardens. Consequently, the basement vaults were part of the famous hanging gardens! The ingenious system of strengthening the soil with multi-layered materials, as well as an extensive water supply system, suggest that the gardens did not suffer from drought. Koldewey recreated the picture of the hanging gardens based on data obtained from ancient sources.

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Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are one of the wonders of the world. Little is still known about him, because only the remains have survived, on the basis of which scientists make various assumptions about the location of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

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Ancient Babylon Babylon means “Gate of God” - a city that existed in Mesopotamia (today Iraq, 90 km south of Baghdad), and was one of the largest cities of the Ancient World. Babylon was the capital of Babylonia, a kingdom that lasted for one and a half millennia, and then the power of Alexander the Great.

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Nebuchadnezzar built his palace on an artificially created platform, raised to the height of a four-tiered structure. Hanging gardens were laid out on earthen terraces resting on vaults. The vaults were supported by powerful tall columns located inside each floor. The terrace platforms were a complex structure. At their base lay massive stone slabs with a layer of reeds covered with asphalt. Then there was a double row of bricks connected with plaster. Even higher are lead plates for water retention. The terrace itself was covered with a thick layer of fertile soil in which large trees could take root. The floors of the gardens rose in ledges and were connected by wide canopy staircases covered with pink and white stone. The height of the floors reached 50 cubits (27.75 m) and provided enough light for plants.

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Hanging Gardens of St. Petersburg The Hanging Garden of the Small Hermitage in St. Petersburg was created from 1764 to 1769 by architects Yu. M. Felten and J. B. Wallen-Delamot (perestroika by V. P. Stasov) at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. This hanging garden still exists today. At the same time, it is sandwiched on all sides by the walls of the palace and open to the sky; The Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna had a hanging garden; Betsky's house had a hanging garden similar to the hanging garden of the Small Hermitage - no one except royalty could afford such a luxury in those years; On the roof of the side building of the Anichkov Palace, its owner, Alexey Razumovsky, placed a hanging garden. However, the fate of this garden was short. The Anichkov Palace often changed owners, who repeatedly and carelessly rebuilt it. As a result, the garden died. But the memory of him remains.

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Abstract The ancient world... a world of secrets and unsolved mysteries... Presentation “The Hanging Gardens of Babylon: myth or reality?” dedicated to one of the seven wonders of the world, in which I wanted to tell and show the history of the creation and existence of ancient gardens, stunning in their beauty and engineering. Can be used to study topics on the history of the Ancient World.

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Presentation Teacher of history and social studies Elena Anatolyevna Grebneva “First Moscow Educational Complex” Hanging Gardens of Babylon: myth or reality?

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The beginning of the story The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is not known for sure whether they existed at all? A more correct name for this structure is the Hanging Gardens of Amytis: this was the name of the wife of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (c. 634-562 BC), for whose sake the gardens were created. Despite the well-established connection between the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the name of the Assyrian queen Semiramis, who lived around 800 BC, scientists consider this a misconception. In fact, the official version of the origin of this wonder of the world is as follows: Nebuchadnezzar and his wife Amytis

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Nebuchadnezzar II fought against Assyria. In order to strengthen the army, an alliance was concluded with the Median king. After the destruction of the enemy, Nebuchadnezzar II decided to marry the daughter of the Median sovereign. But the dusty city of Babylon, standing essentially in the desert, could not be compared with the green and blooming Media. It was for this reason that the ambitious ruler decided to build the Babylonian Hanging Gardens. By the way, the queen’s name was Amytis, so it would be more correct to call the second of the seven wonders of the world by this name... But the unforgettable Semiramis, who was also an extraordinary person, was entrenched in history, although she lived two centuries earlier...

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A gift to his beloved wife King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon was married to the daughter of the king of Media. The marriage was concluded not so much for love, which was not accepted in those days, but for political reasons, for the sake of consolidating the military alliance of Nebuchadnezzar with Cyaxares, the Median king. However, in all likelihood, Nebuchadnezzar valued his wife and tried to make her life happy. It’s not for nothing that the wonder of the world he created is called the first monument of love in this world!

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A native of a mountainous area, the queen yearned in dusty and hot Babylon among the lifeless desert. To console his wife, Nebuchadnezzar decided to create a structure unprecedented at that time in the country - the hanging gardens. These gardens were designed to create in the desert city the illusion of the green hills of Media, where foliage fluttered in the wind and flowers fragrant. The best architects of Babylon took up the construction of the gardens. The task they faced was non-trivial. It was necessary to carry out a huge amount of work, design stone supports and galleries, fill huge containers with fertile soil, think over an irrigation system, so that a garden would grow in the heart of the desert, as if magically brought here from the homeland of the young queen.

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Construction of the garden Columns 25 meters high were built from baked bricks. Four tiers of gardens rested on them. The tiers rose upward in ledges, and they were connected by wide staircases lined with elegant colored tiles. The platforms of each tier were made of stone slabs, lined with reeds and covered with a layer of lead. On top of this kind of waterproofing, a thick layer of fertile soil was poured with the addition of Nile silt, in which large trees could grow. Construction was carried out quickly: the king was in a hurry to please his wife. Seeds of rare herbs and tree seedlings arrived in Babylon from the north. With great precautions, in every possible way preserving the vegetation from drying out, even large trees were brought here so that the queen would not have to wait long for the seedlings to grow.

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Finally, the goal of the Babylonian king was achieved - a garden unprecedented in these places began to rise above the hundred-meter walls of the city. The greenery of the trees amazed the imagination of the townspeople and travelers who entered the city. And the queen got the opportunity to bask in the shade and enjoy the views of green gardens familiar from childhood. The fame of the second wonder of the world reached the most remote corners: merchants, talking about Babylon, always mentioned the huge green gardens previously unimaginable in these places.

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Interesting facts about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon Surprisingly, this unique building, included in the seven wonders of the world, was not new at that time. It’s just that Nebuchadnezzar II, under whom many architectural masterpieces were built, managed to supply water to his hanging gardens in an unusual way. An interesting fact is that the described structure consisted of four levels. Each of them had many cool rooms where the royal family walked during the heat of the day. The building's vaults were supported by 25-meter columns at each level. The fortified terraces were covered with earth, the thickness of which was sufficient for trees to grow there.

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The floors of the gardens rose in ledges and were connected by wide, gentle staircases covered with pink and white stone. The height of the floors reached almost 28 meters and provided enough light for plants. “In carts drawn by oxen, trees wrapped in damp matting and seeds of rare herbs, flowers and bushes were brought to Babylon.” And trees of the most amazing species and beautiful flowers bloomed in extraordinary gardens. Pipes were placed in the cavity of one of the columns, through which water from the Euphrates was pumped day and night to the upper tier of the gardens, from where it, flowing in streams and small waterfalls, irrigated the plants of the lower tiers. Day and night, hundreds of slaves turned a lifting wheel with leather buckets, supplying water from the Euphrates to the gardens. The murmur of water, shade and coolness among the trees taken from distant Media seemed miraculous.

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To prevent liquid from leaking to the lower floors, the platforms of each tier, consisting of huge slabs, were covered with lead leaves and covered with asphalt. Water was supplied upward using a specially designed mechanism pumping it from the Euphrates River. To do this, the slaves turned a huge wheel, irrigating the Hanging Gardens of Babylon with a sufficient amount of moisture. The hundred-meter walls of Babylon and the crowns of trees towering above them instilled in everyone who saw this wonder of the world the thought of the power and strength of the kingdom. And proud Amytis, to whom this grandiose building was actually dedicated, enjoyed the greenery of flowering plants stretching for many kilometers around.

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Semiramis: fiction or reality? Semiramis (Shammuramat) (811-805 BC) became famous for having the experience of sole rule - an extremely rare phenomenon for that time. There is no more reliable information about this queen. Life and legend intertwined together, and Semiramis took one of the places of honor in Armenian and Akkadian mythologies, as a cunning queen who cunningly killed her husband and gained power into her hands. The features of many goddesses were harmoniously woven into her image, and very little is known today about a real woman with that name.

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“In ancient times there was a city in Syria called Askalon, and next to it there was a deep lake, where the temple of the goddess Derketo stood.” Outwardly, this temple looked like a fish with a human head. The goddess Aphrodite became angry with Derketo for something and made her fall in love with a mere mortal youth. Then Derketo gave birth to his daughter and, in anger, irritated by this unequal marriage, killed the young man, and she disappeared into the lake. The girl was saved by pigeons: they warmed her with their wings, carried milk in their beaks, and when the girl grew up, they brought her cheese. The shepherds noticed hollowed-out holes in the cheese, followed the trail of the pigeons and found a lovely child. They took the girl and took her to the caretaker of the royal herds, Simmas. “He made the girl his daughter, gave her the name Semiramis, which means “dove” among the people of Syria, and raised her approximately. She surpassed everyone in her beauty.” This became the key to her future career.

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Modern historians prove that when the soldiers of Alexander the Great reached the fertile land of Mesopotamia and saw Babylon, they were amazed. After returning to their homeland, they reported amazing gardens and trees in Mesopotamia, the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, the Tower of Babel and ziggurats (multi-stage structures). This gave food to the imagination of poets and ancient historians, who mixed all these stories into one to create one of the Seven Wonders of the World... Tower of Babel Palace of Nebuchadnezzar Alexander the Great 336-323. BC

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One of the wonders of the world, about which there are many legends and the likelihood of whose existence is shrouded in mystery for us, is the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

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According to various historical chronicles of Greek and Roman writers, a fairly truthful theory of the existence of the Hanging Gardens is revealed to us. The secret of the existence of a grandiose monument of engineering was slightly revealed only in 1898 thanks to the excavations of Robert Koldewey. During excavations, he discovered a network of intersecting trenches near the Iraqi city of Hille (90 km from Baghdad), in the sections of which traces of dilapidated masonry are still visible.

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ISHTAR GATE One day, during excavations, Koldewey came across some vaults. They were under a five-meter layer of clay and rubble on Qasr Hill, which hid the ruins of the southern fortress and the royal palace. He continued his excavations, hoping to find a basement under the arches, although it seemed strange to him that the basement would be under the roofs of neighboring buildings. But he did not find any side walls: the workers’ shovels only tore off the pillars on which these vaults rested. The pillars were made of stone, and stone was very rare in Mesopotamian architecture. And finally Koldewey discovered traces of a deep stone well, but a well with a strange three-stage spiral shaft. The vault was lined not only with brick, but also with stone. The Ishtar Gate is part of the powerful rampart around Babylon (according to Koldewey’s reconstruction). Ishtar - Babylonian goddess of war and love

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The totality of all the details made it possible to see in this building an extremely successful design for that time (both from the point of view of technology and from the point of view of architecture). Apparently, this structure was intended for very special purposes. And suddenly it dawned on Koldewey! In all the literature about Babylon, starting with ancient authors (Josephus, Diodorus, Ctesias, Strabo and others) and ending with cuneiform tablets, wherever the “sinful city” was discussed, there were only two mentions of the use of stone in Babylon, and this was especially emphasized during the construction of the northern wall of the Qasr region and during the construction of the “Hanging Gardens” of Babylon. Koldewey re-read the ancient sources again. He weighed every phrase, every line, every word; he even ventured into the alien field of comparative linguistics. In the end, he came to the conclusion that the found structure could not be anything other than the vault of the basement floor of the evergreen “hanging gardens” of Babylon, inside of which there was an amazing water supply system for those times.

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The ruins of Babylon are located 90 kilometers from Baghdad. The ancient city ceased to exist long ago, but even today the ruins testify to its grandeur. “A great city... a strong city,” the Bible says about this city. In the 7th century BC, Babylon was the largest and richest city in the Ancient East. There were many amazing structures in Babylon, but most striking were the hanging gardens of the royal palace, gardens that became a legend.

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So far, the most accurate information about the Gardens comes from Greek historians such as Verossus and Diodorus (Sikulis), but the description of the material is rather meager. The tablets from the time of Nebuchadnezzar do not have even a single reference to the Hanging Gardens, although descriptions of the palace of the city of Babylon and the walls are found. Even the historians who give detailed descriptions of the Hanging Gardens have never seen them. Modern historians prove that when Alexander's soldiers reached the fertile land of Mesopotamia and saw Babylon, they were amazed. After returning to their homeland, they reported amazing gardens and trees in Mesopotamia, the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, the Tower of Babel and ziggurats. This was the imagination of the poets and ancient historians who mixed all these stories into one to produce one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was only the twentieth century that revealed some of the mysteries surrounding the legends of the Hanging Gardens. Archaeologists are still struggling to gather enough evidence before reaching definitive conclusions about the location of the Gardens, their irrigation system, and their true appearance.

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Legend associates the creation of the famous gardens with the name of Semiramis, Queen of Assyria. Diodorus and other Greek historians say that the Hanging Gardens in Babylon were built by her. Semiramis - Shammuramat - is a historical figure, but her life is legendary. According to legend, the daughter of the goddess Derketo, Semiramis, grew up in the desert, in a flock of pigeons. Then the shepherds saw her and gave her to the caretaker of the royal flocks, Simmas, who raised her as his own daughter. The royal governor Oann saw the girl and married her. Semiramis was amazingly beautiful, smart and brave. She charmed the king, who took her away from his commander. Oannes took his own life, and Semiramis became queen. After the death of her husband, she became the heir to the throne, although they had a son, Ninias.

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It was then that her abilities in peacefully governing the state manifested themselves. She built the royal city of Babylon with powerful walls and towers, a magnificent bridge over the Euphrates and an amazing temple of Bel. Under her rule, a convenient road was built through the seven ridges of the Zagros chain to Lydia, where she also built the capital Ecbatana with a beautiful royal palace, and brought water to the capital through a tunnel from distant mountain lakes. The courtyard of Semiramis shone with splendor. Ninia was bored with his inglorious life, and he organized a conspiracy against his mother. The queen voluntarily transferred power to her son, and she herself, turning into a dove, flew away from the palace with a flock of doves. From that time on, the Assyrians began to honor her as a goddess, and the dove became a sacred bird for them.

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However, the famous “Hanging Gardens” were not laid out by Semiramis and not even during her reign, but later, in honor of another, alas, not legendary woman. They were built by order of Nebuchadnezzar for his beloved wife Amytis, a Median princess who yearned for the green hills of Media in dusty Babylon. This king, who destroyed city after city and even entire states, built a lot in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar turned the capital into an impregnable stronghold and surrounded himself with unprecedented luxury, even in those days. Nebuchadnezzar built his palace on an artificially created platform, raised to the height of a four-tier structure. Hanging gardens were laid out on earthen terraces resting on vaults. The vaults were supported by powerful tall columns located inside each floor. The terrace platforms were a complex structure.

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At their base lay massive stone slabs with a layer of reeds covered with asphalt. Then there was a double row of bricks connected with plaster. Even higher are lead plates to retain water. The terrace itself was covered with a thick layer of fertile soil in which large trees could take root. The floors of the gardens rose in ledges and were connected by wide, gentle staircases covered with pink and white stones. The height of the floors reached 50 cubits (27.75 m) and provided enough light for plants. In carts drawn by oxen, trees wrapped in wet matting and seeds of rare plants, herbs and bushes were brought to Babylon.

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And trees of the most amazing species and beautiful flowers bloomed in extraordinary gardens. Day and night, hundreds of slaves turned a water-lifting wheel with leather buckets, supplying water from the Euphrates River to the hanging gardens. Magnificent gardens with rare trees, beautiful fragrant flowers and coolness in sultry Babylonia were truly a wonder of the world. He spent his last days in the chambers of the lower tier of these gardens in June 323 BC. Alexander the Great. The Hanging Gardens were destroyed by floods of the Euphrates, which rises 3-4 meters during floods. Ancient Babylon ceased to exist long ago, but its name still lives on.

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Presentation on history Topic: “The Hanging Gardens of Babylon” 5th grade student of the State School (College) of Spiritual Arts Sergey Gureev Moscow 2011 – 2012 academic year