Hanging Gardens Of Babylon Fact Or Fiction
Submitted by rdevane on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
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Hanging Gardens Of Babylon Fact Or Fiction
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon Fact or Fiction?
When attempting to write a detailed essay on a structure that existed over 26 centuries ago, one may find themselves overwhelmed by the inconsistencies of the evidence presented. Not only is credible evidence hard to come by, it often seems to contradict itself. I cannot count the number of times that my searches ended in disappointment, as the material was not relevant to my quest. Yet, with each fact I encountered, I found myself mesmerized by the details of a structure The Hanging Gardens of Babylon that quite possibly never existed.
In this paper, I will attempt to describe the origins, location, structure and illusion of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. I will be focusing more intensely on some of these aspects more than others, due to the peculiar nature of my subject. Let me begin with the simplest of this magnificent splendor - location.
Most historians and archeologist do agree, that if the structure did in fact exist, in more than just the minds of Greek poets, it was near the lower Euphrates River in the area that we now know to be central Iraq. Obviously, by many accounts to be a city (Babylon) known to the entire world as the "gate of the gods". Not only for its beauty but also its decoration. "Diodorus Siculus, a Greek Historian who lived around 30 B.C., wrote that the great hanging gardens lay at the center of the city and towered over all the buildings". (Hollingsworth 14)
The origins of this great fable are not quite as precise. Legend has it that Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens for his wife, Amytis. Unlike Nebuchadnezzar, who had lived his entire life in the desert, Amytis was from Persia; a green, fertile-mountainous climate and she longed for the memories of her youth. At her request, her husband built the hanging gardens as a tribute to his wife's homeland. Although many accounts indicate the Nebuchadnezzar built these great...
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