Walls of Babylon

Reconstruction of the walls, Babylon, Iraq.

The Walls of Babylon were the city walls surrounding the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon. They enclosed the political and religious centre of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and were celebrated in antiquity as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. ^[1] Ancient writers such as Herodotus, Strabo, and the author of the Book of Jeremiah described them.

They were by far the largest structures in Babylon. ^[2] Today the remains of Babylon are the best understood topographically of all known cities from the 1st millennium BC, due to the city walls being visible as earthworks even prior to the first excavations in 1899. ^[3]

Classical and Biblical descriptions

Octo Mundi Miracula : “Babylonis Muri” (Babylon Walls), 1572

The fifth-century BC historian Herodotus wrote a detailed description of the walls in Histories that the walls formed a square measuring 120 stades on each side (c. 22 km), with a total circuit of 480 stades (c. 86 km), 50 royal cubits thick (c. 24 m) and 200 cubits high (c. 97 m), built of baked brick bonded with bitumen. ^{[4] [5]}

Later classical writers largely repeated Herodotus. ^[6] Strabo in Geography XVI 1.5 emphasised the city’s rectangular plan and colossal perimeter, while Diodorus Siculus and Quintus Curtius Rufus transmitted variants of the same tradition. In the Bible, Jeremiah 51 verse 58 alluded to the walls: “Babylon’s thick wall will be leveled, and her high gates set on fire. ^[7]

History

The walls are thought to have been first built in the early second millennium BC, with cuneiform tablets mentioning members of the Hammurabi dynasty, including his son Samsu-iluna, referring to the construction or rebuilding of city walls, gates and moats. ^[8]

In the mid-first millennium BC, Nabopolassar built or rebuilt two walls – mudbrick walls and baked-brick embankments – named Imgur-Enlil and Nēmet-Enlil. ^[9] His son Nebuchadnezzar II expanded the walls subsequently, doubling their size. ^[10]

Nebuchadnezzar II's inner wall (Imgur-Enlil) was made of baked brick in bitumen mortar, and his outer wall (Nēmet-Enlil) consisting of a massive mudbrick rampart. A moat, fed from the Euphrates, was built in between the two walls. ^[10]

Written and archaeological evidence shows that the fortifications remained in use and under repair into the Hellenistic and even the Parthian periods, contradicting Herodotus' notion of a single ‘Chaldean’ monument. ^{[11] [12]} However, Herodotus’ account exerted a formative influence on the interpretation of the walls' ruins from the nineteenth century onward. ^[13]

Gallery

Maps

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Architecture

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See also

• Ishtar gate

Bibliography

• George, Andrew (1992-01-01). "Babylonian Topographical Texts". OLA 40 ISBN 90-6831-410-6. Retrieved 2025-10-07.
• Pedersén, Olof (2021). Babylon: The Great City. Münster: Zaphon. ISBN   978-3-96327-136-6.
• Baker, Heather D. (2022). "Reconstructing Ancient Babylon: Myth and Reality". Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies Journal. 14: 15–28.
• Heinsch, Sandra; Kuntner, Walter (2011). "Herodot und die Stadtmauern Babylons". In R. Rollinger (ed.). Herodot und das Persische Weltreich. Classica et Orientalia 3. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 499–529.

References

1. Roscher, Wilhelm Heinrich (1906). "d) Die sieben Weltwunder (θεάματα, ἔργα μεγάλα)". Die Hebdomadenlehren der griechischen Philosophen und Aerzte (in German). Teubner. pp. 186–193. Retrieved 2025-04-20.
2. Pedersén 2021, p. 39: “Owing to their length, in particular, but also their thickness and height, the city walls with their gates were by far the largest structures in Babylon.”
3. Baker 2022, p. 15: “ Of all the Babylonian cities of the first millennium BC, Babylon itself is undoubtedly the one whose plan is best known… The basic outline of the city could already be discerned prior to the beginning of the German excavations in 1899, as is clear from the excavators’ contour plan of the site (Wetzel 1930: pl. 1) which they drew up before beginning their work. The city walls in particular were visible as earthworks, and within them were a series of mounds where occupation levels were subsequently uncovered.”
4. Herodotus, Histories I, 178-181
5. Heinsch & Kuntner 2011, p. 500.
6. Boiy, T., Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon. p. 68–70 and 75f; Leuven 2004 and Heller, A., Das Babylonien der Spätzeit (7.–4. Jh.) 20–24 und 36–74; in den klassischen und keilschriftlichen Quellen. Berlin 2010.
7. Jeremiah 51:58 (NIV)
8. Pedersén 2021, p. 40."The traditional rectangular city wall (Figs. 1.1, 2.1), whether or not it was called Imgur-Enlil from the beginning, was probably planned and constructed sometime during the Hammurapi dynasty. For lack of other evidence, the oldest known references to the traditional city wall in Babylon have been Marduk-šāpik-zēri (1081–1069 BC) building Imgur-Enlil, and Adad-apla-iddina (1068–1047 BC) rebuilding the old wall, called Imgur-Enlil. This period, or just before, has often been taken as the beginning of the traditional, planned city wall of Babylon. A more recently published late Old Babylonian text, however, points to an earlier dating. It registers the acquisition of a building plot at the Ištar Gate in the New Town area of Babylon in the 11th year of Samsu-ditana, i.e. 1614 BC, at which time the gate (obviously) already existed. The same document refers to an earlier acquisition of the same plot in the 19th year of Samsuiluna, i.e. 1730 BC."
9. Pedersén 2021, p. 42.
10. Pedersén 2021, p. 44-45.
11. Heinsch & Kuntner 2011 , p. 500-502: "Wie stark Herodots Beschreibungen unser Bild der Stadtmauern beherrscht, zeigt sich schließlich im methodischen Ansatz, diese Ruinen als ein singulär neubabylonisches Monument zu behandeln, wenngleich das Fortbestehen und die Instandhaltung der Befestigungsmauern durch schriftliche Quellen bis ins 1. Jahrhundert v. Chr. belegt werden kann. Insbesondere die keilschriftlichen Quellen haben wesentlich zur Revidierung oder zumindest Hinterfragung des allein der Chaldäerzeit zugeschriebenen Babylon-Befundes geführt."
12. Pedersén 2021, p. 44."The city walls, or at least an enclosable section of them, were still functioning in the Hellenistic and early Parthian periods. This is clear from a reference, in the Astronomical Diaries for the year 123 BC, to the closure of the city gates because of fighting with Arabs. It is not clear, however, if this refers to the complete old traditional city walls, sections of them, or some other kind of structure."
13. Heinsch & Kuntner 2011 , p. 500-502: "Somit bleibt festzuhalten, dass dem archäologischen Befund beziehungsweise den von den deutschen Ausgräbern gebotenen Interpretationen weder die notwendige Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt, noch die durch die klassischen Quellen vorgegebene Interpretationsfolie auch nur annäherungsweise kritisch hinterfragt worden wäre. Trotz der erkenn baren Widersprüche, proklamierten Lücken und Unvollständigkeiten wird jedoch diesen Interpretationen weiterhin gefolgt, obwohl diese den ausgegrabenen und dokumentierten archäologischen Befunden bei weitem nicht gerecht werden."