The Lost Hanging Gardens of Babylon
One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World may never have existed, at least not in Babylon.
What was reported
Greek and Roman writers described terraced gardens of trees and flowers rising like a green mountain in Babylon, watered by machines lifting water from the Euphrates. They said King Nebuchadnezzar II built them for his queen, who missed the hills of her homeland.
Archaeologists have dug in Babylon for more than a century and have found walls, gates and palaces, but no sign of the gardens. Babylonian records from Nebuchadnezzar's own time, which describe his buildings in detail, don't mention them.
Explanations offered
Some historians think the gardens were a legend. Others think they existed but have left no trace. The Assyriologist Stephanie Dalley argued that they were in Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, built by King Sennacherib, where carvings show gardens watered by an aqueduct and screw pumps.
- When
- Said to be about 600 BCE
- Where
- Babylon, Babil, Iraq
- Witnesses
- Greek and Roman writers
- Status
- Never found
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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