What nation founded ancient Babylonia. Where was Babylon located? What city is now on the site of ancient Babylon

A Brief History of Babylonia

At the end of the 9th century BC. NS. Assyrians often invade Babylonia and gradually conquer the north of the country. The Assyrian state at this time became a powerful kingdom. In 744 BC. NS. Assyrian king Tiglathpalasar III invaded Babylonia and defeated the Chaldean tribes. In 729 BC. NS. he completely conquered Babylonia. However, Babylonia had the status of a separate kingdom within Assyria. During the reign of Sargon II, the Assyrians were unable to retain power over Babylonia. The Chaldean leader Marduk-apla-iddin took possession of Babylonia and declared himself king of the country. In alliance with the Elamites, he started the war. Initially, in 720-710. BC NS. the allies were successful. But soon Sargon II defeated Elam and drove Marduk-apla-iddin out of Babylonia. He was crowned in Babylon. In 705-703. Marduk-ala-iddin again began military operations against Assyria, but again unsuccessfully. In 692 BC. NS. the Babylonians rebelled against Assyria and made an alliance with Elam and the Arameans. In the battle of Halule on the Tigris, both sides suffered heavy losses, but neither side had decisive success. But in 690 BC. NS. Assyrian king Sinanchherib laid siege to Babylon and in 689 the city fell. A brutal reprisal was perpetrated. Many inhabitants were killed, some were driven into slavery. The city itself was destroyed to the ground, and its territory was flooded.

At the beginning of his reign, the new Assyrian king Esarhaddon ordered the restoration of Babylon and the return of its surviving inhabitants. Shamash-shum-ukin began to rule over Babylonia as a vassal king. In 652 BC. NS. he, having concluded a secret alliance with Egypt, the Syrian governments, Elam, as well as with the tribes of the Chaldeans, Arameans and Arabs, raised an uprising against Assyria. In the battle at the fortress of Der, neither side won victory, but soon the Assyrians managed to withdraw Elam from the union through a palace coup. Could not help Babylonia and other allies. The Assyrians laid siege to Babylon and other cities. After a long siege in the summer of 648 BC. NS . Babylon has fallen. The surviving residents faced a brutal reprisal.

The defeat of Assyria and the creation of the New Babylonian state
The desire for independence did not weaken in Babylonia, one of the most developed regions of Asia Minor. At the beginning of 626 BC. NS. an uprising broke out against Assyrian rule, led by the Chaldean leader Nabopalasar (Nabu-apla-utsur). Having established his rule in the north of the country and having entered into an alliance with Elam, he conducted a series of successful campaigns against Assyria. In October 626 BC. NS. Babylon went over to the side of Nabopalasar, and on November 25, 626, he was solemnly crowned in this city and founded the Chaldean (or New Babylonian) dynasty here. However, only in 616 BC. NS. the Babylonians managed to capture one of the largest cities in Babylonia - Uruk. In the same year, the Babylonians laid siege to the Assyrian city of Ashur, but were unsuccessful. Unexpected help came from the east. In 614 BC. NS. The Medes captured the Assyrian province of Arraphu, and then took the city of Ashur, exterminating its inhabitants. Soon the Medes and Babylonians formed an alliance. In the spring of 612 BC. NS. the allies, supported by the Scythians, laid siege to the capital of Assyria - Nineveh. In August of the same year, the city fell and was destroyed, and its inhabitants were massacred. It was a cruel revenge on the state, which for a long time plundered and devastated the countries of Western Asia. Part of the Assyrian army managed to break through to the west, to the city of Harran, and there continued resistance, but in 609 BC. NS. Nabopalasar with a large army inflicted a final defeat. As a result of the collapse of the Assyrian state, the Medes captured the indigenous territory of Assyria, as well as the city of Harran, while the Babylonians got Mesopotamia. The Babylonians began to prepare for the capture of all areas west of the Euphrates, which formerly belonged to the Assyrians. But Egypt also claimed these territories and sought to seize Syria and Palestine. Therefore, in 607 BC. NS. Nabopalasar with a huge army attacked Karkemish on the Euphrates, where there was an Egyptian garrison, which included Greek mercenaries. In 605 BC. NS. the city was taken and the garrison destroyed. After that, the Babylonians took over Syria and Palestine.

In 605, the son of Nabopalassar, Nebuchadnezzar II, became king. He continued military campaigns, and in 605 BC. NS. he captured the Phoenician city of Ascalon, and in 598 he subdued North Arabia. At the same time, Judah rebelled against Babylonia. In 597 BC. NS. Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to and took Jerusalem, taking some 3,000 of its inhabitants into captivity. After 8 years, the Egyptians captured some Phoenician cities and prompted Judea to revolt again. After a two-year siege, the Babylonians took Jerusalem. The kingdom of Judah was liquidated, and many Jews were resettled to various parts of Mesopotamia, including Babylon. Then the Babylonians laid siege to the Phoenician city of Tire, which they were able to take only in 574 BC.

The reign of Nebuchadnezzar II was a time of economic prosperity and cultural revival in Babylonia. Babylon became the largest city in the Ancient East with a population of about 200,000. At one end of the city was a huge royal palace, and at the other - the main sanctuary of the Babylonians - Esagila. It was a square building, each side of which was 400 meters long. A single whole with Esagila was a seven-story ziggurat (stepped pyramid) with a height of 91 meters, located to the south, which was called Etemenanki (temple of the cornerstone of heaven and earth). Named in the Bible "The Tower of Babel" in ancient times it was considered one of the wonders of the world. At the top of the tower, where an external staircase led, was the sanctuary of the supreme god Marduk. Hanging gardens were also considered one of the wonders of the world, which rested on high stone walls that held soil and exotic trees. These gardens were intended for the wife of Nebuchadnezzar Amitis, who missed the native places of the mountain Media.

Under Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylon became a powerful fortress. It was surrounded by a double wall, the height of which reached 14 meters. The city was surrounded by a deep and wide moat with water. After the death of Nebuchadnezzar II, after a long internecine struggle, Nabonidus (556-539 BC) came to power, descended from the family of the Aramaic leader. He captured in 553 BC. NS. the city of Harran. Nabonidus actively promoted the cult of the supreme god Sina, which aroused the discontent of the priesthood. Nabonidus moved his residence to the city of Teimu, and in Babylon left his son Bel-shar-utsuru (biblical Belshazzar) to rule.

Soon, a new enemy appeared on the eastern borders of Babylonia - the Persians, who captured Media, Lydia and many other states. In the spring of 639 the Persians began to attack Babylonia. In August of the same year, near the city of Opis, they defeated the Babylonian army, which was commanded by the prince Bel-shar-utsur. Lacking support among the nobility and priesthood, Nabonidus surrendered, and in October 639 the Persian king Cyrus II entered Babylon. In the beginning, the Persian policy was pacifying. All religions were allowed. The peoples displaced during the reign of the New Babylonian dynasty were allowed to return to their homeland. But soon the Persian oppression began to intensify, and in 522-521. BC e, in 484-482. BC NS. Several uprisings broke out against the Persians. Babylonia became one of the satrapies of the Persian state.

Introduction

Conclusion

Literature

Introduction

At the beginning of the II millennium BC. in the south of Mesopotamia, on the lands of modern Iraq, the Babylonian state appeared, which existed until 538 BC. The capital of this powerful state was the city of Babylon - the largest political, commercial and cultural center of Asia Minor. The word "Babylon" ("Babili") is translated as "The Gate of God".

Babylonian civilization was, in essence, the last phase of Sumerian civilization and culture.

It was, in fact, a small country, not more than 500 kilometers long and up to 200 kilometers wide, the borders of which, with the increase in the political power of the Babylonian monarchy, moved far to the sides.

Together with the prosperity of agriculture, the growth of cities and the most extensive trade in the country, sciences developed, the network of libraries, consisting of numerous clay cuneiform tiles, expanded.

The earliest beginnings of astronomy and mathematics had their roots in Babylonia, where the duodecimal system prevailed, the main large unit in which was the number 60, which was made up of multiplying 12 (months) by 5 (fingers). In general, the modern division of time, with its seven-day week, with hours, minutes, is of ancient Babylonian origin.

The neighboring countries of this state were under the long influence of the culture of Babylonia, the language of which, even 1500 years before the Christian era, like modern French, was the language of diplomats in almost all of Western Asia and Egypt.

In general, Babylonia is the foundation of the most ancient Near-Asian culture, on the foundations of which most of the current Western European education is based.

1. Ancient Babylon and the intertwining of cultures

In Mesopotamia, in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, one state formation was replaced by another more than once, various peoples fought among themselves, and the victors usually destroyed temples, fortresses and cities of the conquered to the ground. Babylonia, not protected from the outside, like Egypt, by rugged sands, was often subjected to enemy invasions that devastated countries. So many great works of art perished, and a great culture was consigned to oblivion.

Peoples of different origins, who were at enmity with each other in Mesopotamia, created several cultures, and yet their art in its totality is marked by common features that deeply distinguish it from the Egyptian.

The art of the ancients of southern Mesopotamia is commonly referred to as Babylonian art; this name extends to the name not only of Babylon itself (the beginning of the II millennium BC), but also the once independent Sumerian-Akkadian states (IV-III millennium BC), later united by Babylon. For Babylonian culture can be considered the direct heir to the Sumerian-Akkadian culture.

Like the culture of Egypt, and probably at about the same time, this culture arose in Mesopotamia at the end of the Neolithic, again in connection with the rationalization of agriculture. If Egypt, according to the historian Herodotus, is the gift of the Nile, then Babylon should be recognized as the gift of the Tigris and the Euphrates, since the spring floods of these rivers leave layers of silt that are fertile for the soil.

And here the primitive communal system was gradually replaced by a slave-owning one. However, in Mesopotamia for a long time there was no single state ruled by a single despotic power. Such power was established in individual city-states, constantly at war with each other because of the irrigation of the fields, because of the slaves and livestock. At first, this power was entirely in the hands of the priesthood.

In Babylonian art, one cannot find depictions of burial scenes. All the thoughts, all the aspirations of the Babylonian are in the reality that life reveals to him. But life is not sunny, not blooming, but a life full of mysteries, based on struggle, a life that depends on the will of higher powers, good spirits and evil demons, also waging a merciless struggle among themselves.

The cult of water and the cult of heavenly bodies played a huge role in the beliefs of the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia. The cult of water is, on the one hand, as a good force, a source of fertility, and on the other, as an evil, merciless force that has obviously devastated these lands more than once (as in ancient Jewish legends, the formidable legend of the flood is given with an amazing coincidence of details and in legends Sumerians).

The cult of heavenly bodies - as a manifestation of divine will.

Answering questions, teaching how to live without meeting with evil spirits, announce the divine will - all this could be done only by a priest. Indeed, the priests knew a lot - this is evidenced by the Babylonian science, which was born in the priestly environment. Remarkable successes have been achieved in the mathematics necessary to revitalize the trade of the cities of Mesopotamia, to build dams and redistribute fields. The Babylonian sexagesimal number system is still alive today in our minutes and seconds.

Considerably ahead of the Egyptians, the Babylonian astronomers succeeded in observing the celestial bodies: "goats", i.e. planets, and "quietly grazing sheep", i.e. fixed stars; they calculated the laws of rotation of the Sun, Moon and the frequency of eclipses. But all their scientific knowledge and searches were associated with magic and fortune-telling. The stars, the constellations, as well as the insides of the sacrificed animals, were to provide a clue to the future. Spells, conspiracies and magic formulas were known only to priests and astrologers. And therefore their wisdom was considered magical, as if supernatural.

The Hermitage contains a Sumerian table - the oldest written monument in the world (about 3300 BC). The rich collection of such tables in the Hermitage provides a visual representation of the life of the Sumerian-Akkadian cities and Babylon itself.

The text of one of the tables of a later period (II millennium BC) shows the spirit in which the Babylonian laws were drawn up and what they sometimes led to: a certain Babylonian convicted of a serious crime - stealing a slave, knowing that for this he was entitled to the death penalty, while the murder of a slave is punishable only by a fine, he hastened to strangle the powerless victim of his self-interest.

The Sumerian cuneiform, together with the main elements of the Sumerian culture, was borrowed by the Babylonians, and then, thanks to the wide development of Babylonian trade and culture, it spread throughout Asia Minor. In the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. cuneiform has become an international diplomatic writing system.

Many Sumerian sayings testify to the tendency of this people, who seemed to fully perceive the priestly "wisdom" with its indisputable provisions, to criticism, to doubt, to consider many issues from the most opposite points of view, while with a smile reflecting subtle, healthy humor.

How, for example, do you manage your property?

We'll die anyway - let's waste everything!

And to live for a long time - let's save.

Wars did not stop in Babylonia. However, as the following proverb makes clear, the Sumerians clearly understood their ultimate meaninglessness:

You are going to conquer the lands of the enemy.

The enemy comes, conquers your land.

Among the nearly two thousand Babylonian cuneiform tablets kept in the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, the American scientist Professor S. Carter recently discovered the text of two elegies. This, in his opinion, is one of the first attempts to convey in a poetic form the experiences caused by the death of a loved one.

For example, what it says there:

May your conceived children be included in the number of leaders,

May all your daughters get married

May your wife be healthy, may your race multiply,

May well-being and health accompany them every day,

Let beer, wine and other things never run out in your house.

Riddles and fears, superstition, witchcraft and submission, but sober thought and sober calculation; ingenuity, skills of accurate calculations, born in hard work on watering the soil; constant awareness of the danger from the elements and enemies, along with the desire to fully enjoy life; closeness to nature and a thirst to learn its secrets - all this left an imprint on Babylonian art.

Like the Egyptian pyramids, the Babylonian ziggurats served as a monumental crown to the surrounding architectural ensemble and landscape.

The ziggurat is a tall tower encircled by protruding terraces and gives the impression of several towers shrinking in volume, ledge by ledge. A black-colored ledge was followed by another, natural brick color, followed by a whitewashed one.

Ziggurats were built in three or four ledges, or even more, up to seven. Together with the painting, the landscaping of the terraces made the whole structure bright and picturesque. The upper tower, to which a wide staircase led, was sometimes crowned with a gilded dome sparkling in the sun.

Each large city had its own ziggurat, lined with solid brickwork. The ziggurat usually stood near the temple of the main local deity. The city was considered the property of this deity, designed to protect his interests in the host of other gods. The best preserved ziggurat (21 meters high) in the city of Ur, built in the XXII-XXI centuries. BC..

In the upper tower of the ziggurat, the outer walls of which were sometimes covered with blue glazed bricks, there was a sanctuary. People were not allowed there, and there was nothing but a bed and sometimes a gilded table. The sanctuary was the "dwelling" of the god, who rested in it at night, served by a chaste woman. But this same sanctuary was used by the priests for more specific needs: they went up there every night for astronomical observations, often associated with the calendar dates of agricultural work.

The religion and history of Babylon is more dynamic than the religion and history of Egypt. More dynamic and Babylonian art.

Arch ... Arch ... Some researchers attribute the invention of these architectural forms to the Babylonian architects, which formed the basis of all the building art of ancient Rome and medieval Europe. Indeed, a covering of wedge-shaped bricks, applied to one another in a curved line and thus held in balance, was widely used in Babylonia, as can be seen from the remains of palaces, canals and bridges found in Mesopotamia.

The legacy of prehistoric times, the magical image of the Beast, dominates many works of Babylonian art. Most often it is a lion or a bull. Indeed, in the prayer hymns of Mesopotamia, the fury of the gods was compared with a lion's, and their power - with the frenzied strength of a wild bull. In search of a sparkling, colorful effect, the Babylonian sculptor loved to depict a mighty beast with eyes and a protruding tongue of brightly colored stones.

Copper relief that once towered over the entrance of the Sumerian temple at Al-Obeid (2600 BC). An eagle with a lion's head, gloomy and unshakable, like fate itself, with wide spread wings, claws holds two symmetrically standing deer with decorative intricately branched horns. The eagle sitting triumphantly over the reindeer is in peace, and the reindeer captured by it are also dead. Extremely clear and extremely impressive in its harmony and inner strength, a typical heraldic composition.

Of exceptional interest in craftsmanship and remarkable decorativeness, combined with the most bizarre fantasy, is the plate with mother-of-pearl inlay on black enamel, which adorned the harp found in the royal tombs of Ur (2600 BC), foreshadowing (again on millennium) the fables of Aesop, La Fontaine and our Krylov, the transformation of the animal kingdom: animals are endowed with human features, which act and, apparently, reason like people: a donkey playing the harp, a dancing bear, a lion on its hind legs, majestically carrying a vase, a dog with a dagger behind his belt, a mysterious black-bearded "man-scorpion", somewhat reminiscent of a priest, followed by a mischievous goat ...

Magnificent is the mighty head of a bull made of gold and lapis lazuli with eyes and a white shell, which also adorned the harp, which in its reconstructed form is a true miracle of applied art.

Under King Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), the city of Babylon unites all the regions of Sumer and Akkad under its rule. The glory of Babylon and its king resounds throughout the surrounding world.

Hammurabi publishes the famous code of laws, known to us from the cuneiform text on an almost two-meter stone pillar, decorated with a very high relief. Unlike the stele of Naram-Sina, which resembles a pictorial composition, the relief figures stand out as monumental, like round sculptures, vertically cut in half. The bearded and majestic sun god Shamash, sitting on a temple throne, presents the symbols of power - a rod and a magic ring - to King Hammurabi standing in front of him in a pose filled with obedience and reverence. Both look intently into each other's eyes, and this enhances the unity of the composition. The rest of the column is covered with cuneiform text containing 247 articles of the code of law. Five columns, containing 35 articles, were scraped, apparently by the Elamite conqueror, who took this monument as a trophy to Susa.

For all its undoubted artistic merit, this illustrious relief is already showing some signs of the impending decline of Babylonian art. The figures are purely static, the composition does not feel the inner nerve, the former inspired temperament.

2. Culture of the New Babylonian kingdom

Babylon reached its greatest dawn during the period of the New Babylonian kingdom (626-538 BC). Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561 BC) adorned Babylon with luxurious buildings and powerful defenses.

The last flowering of Babylon under Nabopalassar and Nebuchadnezzar II found its outward expression in the great construction activity of these kings. Especially large and luxurious buildings were erected by Nebuchadnezzar, who rebuilt Babylon, which became the largest city in Asia Minor. In it, palaces, bridges and fortifications were erected that surprised contemporaries.

Nebuchadnezzar II built a large palace, luxuriously decorated the religious procession road and the “Gate of the Goddess Ishtar”, built a “country palace” with the famous “hanging gardens”.

Under Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylon became an impregnable military fortress. The city was surrounded by a double wall of raw and baked bricks, fastened with asphalt mortar and reeds. The outer wall was almost 8 m high, 3.7 m wide, and its circumference was 8.3 km. The inner wall, located at a distance of 12 m from the outer one, was 11-14 m high and 6.5 m wide.The city had 8 gates, guarded by tsarist soldiers. In addition, fortified towers were located at a distance of 20 m from each other, from which it was possible to fire at the enemy. In front of the outer wall, at a distance of 20 m from it, there was a deep and wide ditch filled with water.

Here is a note left by this king:

"I surrounded Babylon from the east with a powerful wall, I dug a ditch and fortified its slopes with asphalt and burnt bricks. At the base of the ditch I erected a high and strong wall. I made a wide gate of cedar wood and covered them with copper plates. those with evil intentions could not penetrate the borders of Babylon from the flanks, I surrounded it with waters powerful as waves of the sea. baked bricks. I carefully fortified the bastions and turned the city of Babylon into a fortress. "

The ancient historian Herodotus reports that two chariots drawn by four horses could freely disperse along the walls. Excavations have confirmed his testimony. New Babylon had two boulevards, twenty-four large avenues, fifty-three temples, and six hundred chapels.

All this was in vain, for the priests, who occupied an exceptionally high position in the New Babylonian kingdom, under one of Nebuchadnezzar's successors, simply transferred the country and the capital to the Persian king ... in the hope of increasing their income.

Babylon! "A great city ... a mighty city," as the Bible says, which "made all nations drink with the wine of the wrath of his fornication."

This is not about the Babylon of the wise king Hammurabi, but about the New Babylonian kingdom founded by newcomers to Babylonia, the Chaldeans, after the defeat of Assyria.

Slavery in Babylon reached its greatest development during this period. Trade achieved significant development. Babylon became the country's largest trading center, selling and buying agricultural products, handicrafts, real estate and slaves. The development of trade led to the concentration of great wealth in the hands of the large trading houses of the "Sons Egibi" in Babylon and the "Sons Egibi" in Nippur, the archives of which have survived to this day.

Nabopalasar and his son and successor Nebuchadnezzar II (604 - 561 BC) pursued an active foreign policy. Nebuchadnezzar II made campaigns to Syria, Phenicia and Palestine, where at that time the Egyptian pharaohs of the 26th dynasty tried to establish themselves. In 605 BC, at the Battle of Carchemish, Babylonian troops defeated the Egyptian army of Pharaoh Necho, who was supported by Assyrian troops. As a result of the victory, Nebuchadnezzar II captured all of Syria and advanced to the borders of Egypt. However, the Kingdom of Judah and the Phoenician city of Tire put up, with the support of Egypt, stubborn resistance to Nebuchadnezzar II. In 586 BC. After the siege, Nebuchadnezzar II occupied and destroyed the capital of Judea, Jerusalem, resettling a large number of Jews to the “Babylonian captivity”. Tire withstood the siege of Babylonian troops for 13 years and was not taken, but subsequently submitted to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar II managed to defeat the Egyptians and drive them out of Asia Minor.

From this New Babylon only memory remained, for after its capture by the Persian king Cyrus II in 538 BC. Babylon gradually fell into complete decline.

The memory of King Nebuchadnezzar, who defeated the Egyptians, destroyed Jerusalem and overwhelmed the Jews, surrounded himself with unparalleled luxury even in those days and turned the capital he built into an impregnable stronghold, where the slave-owning nobility indulged in the most riotous life, the most unrestrained pleasures ...

Memory of the famous Bible "Tower of Babel", which was a grandiose seven-tiered ziggurat (built by the Assyrian architect Aradahdesh), ninety meters high, with a sanctuary sparkling from the outside with bluish-purple glazed bricks.

This sanctuary, dedicated to the main Babylonian god Marduk and his wife, the goddess of the dawn, was crowned with gilded horns, the symbol of this god. According to Herodotus, the solid gold statue of the god Marduk that stood in the ziggurat weighed almost two and a half tons.

The memory of the famous "Hanging Gardens" of the semi-mythical Queen Semiramis, revered by the Greeks as one of the seven wonders of the world. It was a multi-tiered structure with cool chambers on ledges planted with flowers, bushes and trees, irrigated by a huge water-lifting wheel, which was turned by slaves. During excavations on the site of these "gardens" only a hill with a whole system of wells was discovered.

The memory of the "Ishtar Gate" - the goddess of love ... However, from this gate, through which the main processional road ran, something more concrete has also been preserved. The slabs with which it was paved bore the following inscription: "I am Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, son of Nabopolasar, king of Babylon, paved the Babylonian street for the procession of the great lord Marduk with stone slabs from Shadu. Marduk, lord, grant us eternal life."

The walls of the road in front of the Ishtar Gate were faced with blue glazed bricks and decorated with a relief frieze depicting a procession of lions - white with a yellow mane and yellow with a red mane. These walls, together with the gates, are the most remarkable thing that has survived, at least in part, from the grandiose structures of Nebuchadnezzar (Berlin, Museum).

According to the selection of tones, this brilliant colored glaze is perhaps the most interesting thing in the monuments of art of the New Babylonian kingdom that have come down to us. The figures of the animals themselves are somewhat monotonous and not expressive, and their totality, in general, is nothing more than a decorative composition, while devoid of dynamism. The art of New Babylon created little original, it repeated only with greater and sometimes excessive pomp the samples created by ancient Babylonia and Assyria. It was an art that we would now call academic: a form perceived as a canon, without the freshness, spontaneity and inner justification that once inspired it.

With the establishment of Persian rule (528 BC), new customs, laws and beliefs emerged. Babylon ceased to be the capital, the palaces were empty, the ziggurats gradually turned into ruins. Babylon gradually fell into complete decline. In the Middle Ages of our era, only wretched Arab huts huddled on the site of this city. Excavations made it possible to restore the plan of a huge city, but not its former greatness.

The Babylonian civilization, whose culture is the last phase of Sumerian culture, marks the birth of a new sociopsychic cosmos - moral and ethical, the forerunner of the Christian - around a new sun, suffering man.

Conclusion

At the turn of the XIX - XVIII centuries. BC NS. during a fierce struggle in the Mesopotamia of states and dynasties of various origins, Babylon began to stand out, eventually turning into one of the greatest cities in the world. It was the capital of not only the Ancient, but also the New Babylonian kingdom, which took shape a millennium later. The exceptional importance of this economic and cultural center is evidenced by the fact that the entire Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia) - the region in the middle and lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates - was often defined by the term Babylonia.

The existence of the ancient Babylonian kingdom (1894-1595 BC) leaves a remarkable era in the history of Mesopotamia. During these three hundred years, the southern part of it reached a high degree of economic development and political influence. Babylon, an insignificant town under the first Amorite kings, became a major commercial, political and cultural center during the Babylonian dynasty.

At the end of the 8th century. Babylon was conquered by the Assyrians and as punishment for the rebellion in 689. BC NS. completely destroyed.

Babylonia, after three hundred years of dependence on Assyria, again became independent from 626 BC, when the Chaldean king Nabopalasar reigned there. The kingdom founded by him existed for about 90 years, until 538 BC, when it was conquered by the troops of the Persian king Cyrus, in 331 Alexander the Great seized it, in 312 Babylon was captured by one of the generals of Alexander the Great, Seleucus, who resettled most of it inhabitants to the city of Seleucia founded by him nearby. By the 2nd century. AD in place of Babylon, only ruins remained.

Thanks to archaeological excavations, which have been carried out since 1899, city fortifications, the royal palace, temple structures, in particular the complex of the god Marduk, and a residential quarter have been discovered on the territory of Babylon.

Currently, Iraq is located on the territory of the state of Babylon, this is the only thing that unites these two states.

Literature

History of the Ancient East. The emergence of the most ancient class societies and the first centers of the slave-owning civilization. Part I. Mesopotamia / ed. I. M. Dyakonova - M., 1983.

Culturology: Lecture notes. (Author-comp. Oganesyan A.A.). - M.: Prior, 2001.-p.23-24.

Lyubimov LB Art of the Ancient World. - M .: Education, 1971.

Polikarpov V.S. Lectures on cultural studies. - M .: "Gardarika", "Expert Bureau", 1997.-344 p.

Reader "Art," part 1. - M .: Enlightenment, 1987

Shumov S.A., Andreev A.R. Iraq: History, People, Culture: A Documentary Historical Study. - M .: Monolit-Evrolints-Tradition, 2002.-232s.

First, Koldevei's expedition dug up two rows of Babylonian walls, which stretched around the city for almost 90 kilometers. It was twice the circumference of London in the last century, while London at that time had more than two million inhabitants. How many inhabitants, then, should have lived in Babylon?

In early 1900, Koldewey established that his workers had also unearthed the third belt of the Babylonian walls. If all the bricks of these walls were arranged in a chain, then a belt with a length of 500 to 600 thousand kilometers would turn out. They could girdle the globe along the equator 12-15 times ...

The second wall was made of fired bricks: to produce it in the required quantity, 250 factories had to work with an annual production of ten million bricks. What was the purpose of these walls? Defend the inhabitants of Babylon from enemy weapons? Is this possible 2000 years before the invention of gunpowder?

Monuments of Ancient Babylon

Ancient babylon- the walls from the inside were faced with glazed tiles covered with ornaments, as well as images of lions, gazelles, dragons and warriors with weapons in their hands. Already in the first days of excavations, when less than 10 meters of walls were dug up, Koldevey found almost a thousand large and small fragments from their decorations: lion tails and teeth, legs of gazelles and people, spearheads ... And all 19 years of excavation, the finds continued!

The vast plain is dominated by mighty walls with hundreds of towers covered with green and blue tiles that reflect the sun's rays far into the horizon. And behind these walls and towers are even more magnificent and tall buildings.

In the center of the capital rises the tallest structure between the Euphrates and the Tigris - the legendary Tower of Babel. And all this magical landscape is reflected in a huge lake, which defended the already impregnable walls from attack. The ingenious water system made it possible, in case of danger, to flood the plain around Babylon.

Death Road

All authors agree that the walls were built of bricks held together with asphalt. But even more than the fortress walls, Koldevei (and with it the whole world) was struck by another discovery - "The Road of Death", or, more precisely, "The Road for the processions of the god Marduk."

The road went from the banks of the Euphrates and the Great Gate to the main temple of ancient Babylon - Esagila (a sanctuary with a high tower), dedicated to the god Marduk. This road, 24 meters wide, was as flat as a cord, and led first to the gate of the goddess Ishtar (a powerful fortified structure with four towers), and from there, along the royal palace and ziggurat, to the sanctuary of the god Marduk.

In the middle, the road was paved with large stone slabs, and the entire length of it was framed by red brick stripes. The space between the gleaming stone slabs and the matte paving was filled with black asphalt. On the underside of each slab was engraved in cuneiform:

I, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, son of Nabop-lazar, king of Babylon. He paved the Babylonian path of pilgrims for the procession of the great lord Marduk with stone slabs ... O Marduk! O great lord! Grant eternal life!

It was a magnificent road, but still something completely different made it a miracle of the world. In fact, it was a huge ravine, like a beautifully lined sluice canal. Nothing could be seen either to the right or to the left, because on both sides it was framed by smooth walls of seven meters high, ending in battlements, between which towers stood at the same distance from each other.

The inside of the walls was lined with glittering glazed blue tiles, and against the cold blue backdrop, lions with bright yellow manes and bared teeth with fangs walked menacingly. One hundred and twenty two-meter predators looked at the pilgrims from the walls, from the gates of the goddess Ishtar, dragons, horned half-crocodiles, half-dogs with a scaly body and huge bird claws instead of paws cast their gaze predatoryly. There were over five hundred of these Babylonian dragons.

Why did devout Babylonian pilgrims have to walk this terrible road? After all, religion ancient babylon although full of magic, miracles and fantastic creatures, it was by no means a religion of horror. But the road of Marduk aroused a feeling of fear and surpassed everything, even the temple of the Aztecs at Chichen Itza, which is called petrified horror. The researchers of the Babylonian religion have not been able to answer this question.

Warriors of Ancient Babylon

Military historians suggest that the road of the great god Marduk served not just for processions of pilgrims, but was also part of the defensive system of the largest fortress that ever existed in the world.

Let's try to imagine what the enemy would have met if he decided to capture Babylon Nebuchadnezzar?

First, he would have to cross a wide ditch, into which the waters of the Euphrates would have been released. Suppose it succeeded ... For such cases in Mesopotamia, they used not boats, but air-inflated sheepskin skins, on which the warriors swam like on life buoys. (The workers of Koldevei in this way moved to work from the right bank of the Euphrates every morning.)

Let's say that the enemy has overcome both the first, and second, and third lines of the walls of ancient Babylon. And so he finds himself at the main gate, and having overcome these gates, he finds himself on a flat, paved and asphalted road leading to the royal palace. Then from the countless holes in the towers, a rain of arrows, spears and red-hot asphalt cores would fall on him. And there would not be the slightest opportunity for him to escape.

In addition, the enemy would find himself between the walls, causing fear - lions, gazing with a formidable look, and from the gates of the goddess Ishtar hundreds of dragons would grin. The road of Marduk became a real death road for the enemy.

And still ancient babylon fell ... He fell, although the walls of Nebuchadnezzar continued to stand and no one took possession of them ... The Persian king Cyrus bribed the ruling elite, promising to keep all the privileges. And she opened for him the gates of the city walls and the main gate of the goddess Ishtar. And the shields of the soldiers saluting the new lord covered the mouths of the formidable lions on the walls of the road of Marduk.

Babylon (ancient Greek Βαβυλών from the Semitic "bab-Illu" meaning "Gate of God") is a city that existed in Mesopotamia (today Iraq, 90 km south of Baghdad), was one of the largest cities in the Ancient World. Babylon was the capital of Babylonia, a kingdom that existed for a millennium and a half, and then the power of Alexander the Great.

History.
The first mention of the city of Kadingir (Sumerian. "Gate of the Gods") occurred during the reign of King Sharkalisharri. The king is building a temple here. However, according to a later chronicle, this city already existed under the Ancient Sargon. The city of Kadingir, apparently, was founded in the XXIII century BC. e., as a colony by immigrants from Eredu. The god of Kadingir Amar-utu [k] (Marduk) was considered the son of Enki, the chief god of Ered; it was Babylon that was the center of the spread of the Ereduc cycle of myths; and in a later epoch, when the real Eredu disappeared from the face of the Earth, he was directly identified with Eredu. Explaining the Sumerian royal lists in Greek in Hellenistic times, the historian Berossus everywhere translates "Ereda" as "Babylon".

The conquerors - the Amorites from the Yahrurum tribe chose this Sumerian city of Kadingir as the capital of their state and named it Babylon (Amoreis. Bab-ilu that is, "The Gate of God").

In 331 BC. NS. Babylon was conquered by Alexander the Great, who made here the capital of his empire (Alexander died in Babylon), and in 312 BC. NS. - captured by one of Alexander's generals, the Diadochus Seleucus, who resettled most of its inhabitants to the city of Seleucia, which he founded nearby. By the 2nd century A.D. NS. in place of Babylon, only ruins remained.

Herodotus about Babylon:

“... Babylon was built like this ... It lies on a vast plain, forming a quadrangle, each side of which is 120 stades (21,312 m) in length. The circumference of all four sides of the city is 480 stades (85,248 m) [source not specified 459 days]. Babylon was not only a very large city, but also the most beautiful city I know. First of all, the city is surrounded by a deep, wide and full of water moat, then there is a wall 50 royal (Persian) cubits (26.64 m) wide and 200 (106.56 m) high. The royal elbow is 3 fingers larger than an ordinary one (55.5 cm) ...

According to excavations

Babylonian relief from the gate of Ishtar Excavations 1899-1917, evidence of ancient Greek authors and other sources revealed the appearance of ancient Babylon (in the VI century BC). Divided into 2 parts (western and eastern) by the Euphrates, the city was a rectangle in plan (area about 10 km²), surrounded by 3 rows of brick walls with massive crenellated towers and 8 gates. The main gate of Ishtar was faced with blue glazed bricks with stylized relief images of yellow-red and white-yellow bulls and dragons. A paved processional road led to the Esagila temple complex in the center of the city with a 7-tiered Etemenanki ziggurat (the so-called Tower of Babel), the tiers of which were painted in different colors. In the north, there was a fortress-palace of Nebuchadnezzar II with hanging gardens, a number of courtyards and a throne room, which had a facing of blue glazed brick with an ornamental frieze and the image of yellow columns. In the east - the remains of a Greek theater of the 4th century. BC NS.

According to Herodotus, Queen Nitocris changed the course of the Euphrates River in order to make it difficult for the Medes to penetrate the country in trade relations and not allow them to find out exactly the state of affairs in the country. Queen Nitokris Herodotus attributes the structures of the king of Nabukadnezzar (Nabu-kudurri-utsur II, Nebuchadnezzar II, son of Nabu-apla-utsur, 605 BC - 562 BC)

In the VI century BC. NS. Babylon became the most beautiful city in the ancient world. Its pearls were the Ishtar gate and the Etemenanki ziggurat.

Ishtar Gate in the Pergamon Museum Ishtar Gate was one of the eight gates that surrounded Babylon. The gate was tiled with blue tiles with alternating rows of sirrushes and bulls. The Processional Route passed through the gate, the walls of which were decorated with tiles with images of lions. Every year, during the New Year's celebrations, statues of the gods were carried along the Processional Path.

The path of the Processions led to the ziggurat of Etemenanki. The seven-story Etemenanki was the tallest (90 m) building in Babylon. At its top stood the temple of Marduk, the patron god of Babylon. The ziggurat of Etemenanki was probably the prototype of the Biblical Tower of Babel.

Babylon as a symbol
Babylon (apocalyptic) - the capital of the Babylonian monarchy - made such an indelible impression on the Jews after the Babylonian captivity with its power and uniqueness of culture that its name became synonymous with every large, rich and, moreover, immoral city. The story of the Tower of Babel was recorded during the Assyrian kingdom.

The later writers, namely the Christian ones, often use the name "Babylon" in a sense that is still the subject of controversy for commentators and researchers. So, a lot of reasoning was caused by one place in the first Epistle of the Apostle Peter, where he says that "he welcomes the chosen church in Babylon." It is extremely difficult to determine what exactly is meant here by Babylon, and very many, especially Latin writers, argue that under this name ap. Peter understands Rome, on which the well-known claims of the popes as the successors of the Apostle Peter are even based. In the first centuries of Christianity, Rome was called the New Babylon because of the huge number of peoples living in the empire, as well as the position occupied by the city in the world at that time as the capital of the largest state in the world.

But a particularly remarkable example of the use of the name Babylon is found in the Apocalypse, or the Revelation of ap. John (from the end of the XVI chapters to the XVIII). There, under the name Babylon, a "great city" is depicted, which plays a huge role in the life of nations. Such an image no longer corresponds at all to Mesopotamian Babylon, which had long lost its world significance by that time, and therefore researchers, not without reason, understand by this name the great capital of the Roman Empire, Rome, which in the history of Western peoples occupied the same position as it occupied earlier in the history of the East capital of Nebuchadnezzar.

In Rastafarianism, Babylon symbolizes the pragmatic Western civilization built by the white (descendants of the Puritans) people.

The heyday of the Babylonian kingdom (18th century BC). The Babylonian kingdom, in comparison with the Egyptian kingdom, did not exist for long. Its heyday dates back to the reign of King Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC). Under him, it reached its largest size (Hammurabi conquered all of Sumer and part of the Northern Mesopotamia).

Like the Egyptian pharaohs, the Babylonian king had unlimited power. Hammurabi appointed the rulers of regions and cities, led the army, on his order, canals were carried out, etc. However, in unlike the pharaohs, the king himself, according to the ideas of the Babylonians, was not a god: he received his power from the gods and, ruling the country, carried out their will.

The king owned vast lands that he distributed per public service (to nobles, tax collectors, shepherds of the royal flocks, etc.). The land - the field and the garden - was also endowed with the warriors.

Communities of farmers in Babylonia. The community was unification of farmers living in the neighborhood.

Unlike Egypt, in Babylonia, along with the royal lands, there were lands belonging to the communities. The land of each community was divided among families on plots that were inherited.

The community members cultivated the plots with the help of their own livestock.

Community members monitored the condition of irrigation facilities (canals, barrage embankments) on the territory of their community. The community was also responsible for order in this territory (if someone was robbed on its land, and the criminal was not found, then the community members jointly compensated for the damage to the victim).

Community members paid tax (in grain and other products) to the royal treasury.

Similar communities of farmers existed not only in Babylonia, but also in most of the ancient countries of Asia (nothing is known about the existence of communities in Egypt).

The laws of King Hammurabi. The largest event in the history of the entire Mesopotamia was the creation of a code of laws issued on behalf of the Babylonian king Hammurabi. In the countries of Ancient Mesopotamia, these laws were considered exemplary, they were studied and rewritten for one and a half thousand years.

Scientists of modern times have divided the text of the laws into 282 paragraphs.

For murder, robbery, theft, harboring an escaped slave and many other crimes were punishable by the death penalty. Self-harm punished in accordance with the ancient custom "an eye for an eye, a tooth for aub" (ie, equal for equal). The laws say:

If a person gouges out a person's eye, then he himself should gouge out the eye.

If a person knocks out a tooth to a person, then he himself should knock out the tooth.

Free people were legally responsible for careless work.

If the community member did not strengthen the embankment on his land and the water broke through it and flooded the fields of his neighbors, then the guilty party is obliged to compensate for the losses.

If a builder has built a house so that it collapsed, then the builder must rebuild the house at his own expense.

The laws repeatedly mention slaves, they were mostly foreigners; slaves are seen as a thing that can be bought and sold.

The king, as head of state, strove to protect the free Babylonians from indefinite enslavement. The laws say: if a person cannot repay a debt, he gives his wife, son or daughter into debt bondage; in this case, the debtor slave will serve in the lender's house for three years, in the fourth year he must be released.

Hammurabi's code of laws discusses in detail relationship between people:

the rules for the conclusion of marriage, adoption, grounds for divorce, the procedure for inheriting property are established;

the amount of payment for services to a doctor, a tailor, a tanner, a carpenter, etc. is negotiated;

the conditions for obtaining for temporary use a house, a field, a garden of date palms, bulls and donkeys are determined.

The publication of a set of laws limited the arbitrariness of the authorities and contributed to the establishment of law and order in the country. To a certain extent, Hammurabi was right when, in the introduction to the text of the laws, he declared that he gave "justice to shine in the country in order to destroy the wicked and the wicked, so that the strong would not oppress the weak."

Features of religious beliefs. Like the Egyptians, the people of Babylonia deified nature. They worshiped the gods of the sky, sun, moon, earth, water.

The main female deity was Ishtar - goddess of fertility and love; she also assisted women in childbirth.

When Babylon became the capital of a large state, the patron god of this city Marduk began to be worshiped as the main god, the king of the gods.

Unlike the Egyptians, the Babylonians imagined the kingdom of the dead as a terrible, dark, underground country full of dust. Evil spirits dwell there. The food of the dead is bitter, the water is salty, and slops could also serve as a drink. Only those who fell in battle were allowed to drink clean water and those who died whose relatives made abundant sacrifices to the gods.