The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. But whereas the other six can lay claim to evidence of their existence, we have no such proof for this one. It is important to note that this lack of proof only refers to the Gardens. Babylon was a real place and was located in what is now Iraq, close to the city of Hillah. Even though we do not have definitive proof of the gardens, we can fill in the stories surrounding them.
It is believed they were built under the orders of King Nebuchadnezzar II. Since he reigned between the years 605 BCE to 562 BCE, they would have been built around this time. Within the city, he had also built a great palace which was called “The Marvel of Mankind.” It was alongside this palace that the gardens were constructed. From the accounts we have, the term Hanging Gardens is not quite correct. They were in tiers around and up the building. The effect was that the palace appeared to be floating above a mountain of foliage, vines and plants.
The reason for their construction is said it for Nebuchadnezzar’s wife, Queen Amytis. She was born in Media which is now in Iran and she has been used to the green hills of her birthplace. The countryside of the Babylonian desert was very different and she became homesick. That is why her husband had the gardens built. There is a theory that there were such gardens but they were located in Nineveh, another city in Mesopotamia. There are some clay tablets depicting such gardens at Nineveh to back up this claim. I have seen these depictions and I must say they do look like tiered gardens.
However, in Babylon’s favour, we have five accounts from different ancient historians who mention the gardens being in Babylon. These historians are Josephus, a Roman-Judean writing in 290 BCE, Diodorus Siculus, who said they were located close to the Euphrates River, Strabo, a Greek geographer, Quintus Curtius Rufus, a Roman historian and finally, Philo of Byzantium who confirmed reports that Strabo’s accounts of a water pump system for irrigation were true. Since many of these writers were alive at the time of the gardens, it does lead one to believe they quite possibly existed and were located in Babylon.
I believe the answer is that there is enough evidence to say that it is quite likely there were such gardens at Babylon and at Nineveh. The ruins of Babylon can be seen today. They are located about 50 miles south of Baghdad. It is one of the places I wish to visit just as soon as it becomes safer to do so.
John Pullen 