Babylon Essay, Research Paper

Babylonia

The Babylonians were one of the great ancient civilizations (encarta Babylon) and were

believed to have existed from the 21st century to about the 1st century BC, but the Babylonians

were only mentioned in any documents until the late 3rd century BC. This ancient country was

located where southern Iraq is today, and preceded upwards in a crescent like shape to the

Mediterranean sea (hotbot babylon). The capital Babylon, one of the most important cities of the

ancient world (Encarta Babylon) , was located between the two great rivers, Euphrates and

Tigris. The City today now lies in ruins about 90Km south of Bagdad.

Babylon was believed to have originated from the Mesopotamia tribes in the Euphrates

Valley, which were believed to come from Mongolian ancestry, these tribes were than taken over

by the northern kingdom of Akkad. The semitic invaders, however, eagerly adopted, improved,

and widely spread the beliefs and knowledge of the civilizations they conquered( Hotbot

Babylon). The Akkads, although widely debated, are believed it be the Aborigional Babylonians.

“The First was Eridu, then a seaport on the Persian Gulf, where their earlyest myths represent the

first man, Adapu (Adam), speading his time fishing”(Hotbot Babylon). From the little known

information about this culture, they were believed to be a considerably culture for being so early

in development.

Babylonians were a very technological advanced people and known for their tall, highly

fortified walls construction and waterways, such as canals and aqueduct (grolier 254). This made

them a hard country to conquer because the highly fortified walls, so that the position could not

get in and because they had water running throughout the city, to make it hard to cut off the

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water supply (Hotbot Babylonian Technologically). These people are also very intelligent and

educated. The Babylonians were first to believe in the myth of Astrology, the belief that the stars

told the future, which king relied on to predict the outcome of wars. Babylon also created one of

the greatest code of law of its time, the Code of Hammurabi, which covered everything from shop

lifting to Treason. Babylonians also invented one of the most complex mathematical systems,

possibly better than are current math system.

Babylon was a great city ruled by 5 great leaders over a period of 296. Babylon was

powerful and a dominate city but it became the most powerful under it’s 6th ruler Hammurabi,

who beat down the opposition and created the Kingdom of Babylonia. Hammurabi is one of the

greatest figures in history, compared to people like Alexander the great, Caesar and Napoleon.

He led his people to power. After many years of power, Babylon started to fall and at that point

get into a conflict with Assyria. After the Assyria were defeated, by the next great leader of

Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar 1, it than soon after got into a conflict with the powerful Persian

Empire and was defeated.

The Babylonians were under Persian control for a very short time before the empire fell.

Under the new King Nabuchodonosor Added to the land by taking over Elam and Syria. He

proved to the ancient world that Babylon is still a force to be feared, but when Assyria went to

war with Babylon again, Egypt saw a weak Babylon and went in for the kill. Egyptians then led

the Babylonians into Egypt and into slavery.

Although debated this is the believed end of Babylon, but the history of this is very

unclear. Most of the Babylonians history was lost and are not completely understood and might

never be.