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Babylon was one of the major cities of ancient Mesopotamia and a symbol of kingship, temple culture and urban civilization in Western Asia. It stood on the Euphrates, in a zone where river agriculture, canals, trade and written administration supported large states. In different periods Babylon was a royal capital, religious centre, object of conquest and monument of ancient glory.
The history of Babylon cannot be reduced to one period. The city is connected with Hammurabi's Old Babylonian kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar II's Neo-Babylonian empire, Persian rule, the campaigns of Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic world of the Seleucids.
In the early second millennium BC Babylon rose among the cities of southern Mesopotamia and became the centre of a kingdom. The best-known ruler of this period is Hammurabi, whose name is linked with major political consolidation and the famous law collection. Hammurabi's laws are important not as the first law in history, but as an outstanding monument of royal ideology, judicial practice and social hierarchy.
The Old Babylonian state inherited much from the Sumerians and Akkadian tradition: cuneiform, temple economy, urban administration and ideas of the king as defender of order. At the same time Babylon gradually became a cultural centre in its own right.
In the late seventh and sixth centuries BC Babylon again became the capital of a large empire. Nebuchadnezzar II is especially famous: under him the city was rebuilt, fortified and adorned. The Ishtar Gate, Processional Way, monumental walls, temples and the memory of vast royal construction are associated with this age.
The Neo-Babylonian empire inherited Assyrian and Mesopotamian political experience, but built its own image of legitimacy through the city, Marduk and the restoration of sanctuaries. In 539 BC Babylon became part of the Achaemenid empire, while retaining religious and administrative importance.
The cult of Marduk and the Esagila temple complex formed Babylon's religious heart. Nearby stood the ziggurat Etemenanki, later tradition connecting it with the image of the Tower of Babel. For the city's inhabitants the temple was not only a sacred place but also a major economic, archival and social centre.
In Greek and biblical tradition Babylon became an image of a great, wealthy and dangerous city. Its historical appearance is therefore often mixed with symbolic ideas. Encyclopedic history must distinguish the real city on the Euphrates, the kingdoms that controlled it and the later cultural myth.
Babylon should not be presented only through later legend. Checks need cuneiform texts, royal inscriptions, urban topography, archaeology of gates and temple complexes, and separation of Old Babylonian, Neo-Babylonian and Hellenistic layers.
For source checks: - Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative - Louvre Collections - Arachne database, German Archaeological Institute
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