The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Location: On the east bank of the Euphrates River, about 50km south  of Baghdad, Iraq.

Description: A number of descriptions of the majestic gardens have been found among writings of the past...:

"The Garden is quadrangular, and each side is four plethra long.  It consists of arched vaults which are located on checkered cube-like foundations.  The ascent of the uppermost terrace-roofs is made by a stairway..."

"The hanging garden has plants cultivated above ground level, and the roots of the trees are embedded in an upper terrace rather than in the earth.  The whole mass is supported on stone columns...The grass is permanently green and the leaves of trees grow firmly attached to supple branches..."

    Exotic plants and flowers cascaded over the terraces.  Cypress trees and palms provided shade and the air was heavy with the scent of aromatic plants and flowers.

Information: The Gardens were built by Semiramis in the 9th century BC by orders of King Nebuchadnezzar.  They were created for his wife, Amytis who yearned for the hilly landscape of her homeland, Persia. Nebuchadnezzar had the gardens planted with every kind of tree and plant imaginable, the success of these plants was due to a functioning irrigation system.   

    However, there is question as to whether the gardens really did exist or not.  Tablets recorded from the time of Nebuchadnezzar do not mention them at all, although there are many descriptive accounts provided by Greek historians.  Some believe that the blending together of stories from Alexander's visit to the empire have produced one of the world's most famous wonders, and that it might never have really existed at all..

   Today, archaeologists are still trying to piece together various pieces of evidence, to discover the very essence of the gardens and its amazing components to see if they really existed.