Under the forty-three-year reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the city of Babylon flourished. It covered about 4 square miles
Most fascinating, from the standpoint of ancient history, concerns Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great statue. Actually, as explained in Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar did not remember his dream, so Daniel had to tell him both what he dreamed and what it meant.
According to Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a great statue made of different kinds of metal: a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, torso and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet a mixture of iron and clay. Then a great stone came and knocked down the statue. The pieces of the statue blew away, and the stone became a great mountain. Daniel interpreted the stone as the kingdom of God, which would overcome the kingdoms of man. Those
Kingdoms were symbolized by the parts of the statue, each of which was less great than the one above it.
Biblical scholars have viewed the dream in terms of the empires that existed at that time and afterward: the gold was Babylonia, as Daniel said; the silver Persia; the bronze Alexander's Greek Empire; and the iron Rome. In each case, the metal was less valuable, just as the ruler of each had less absolute power than the one before him. But the metal was also stronger, just as each empire was a little more permanent in its influence. It would seem, also, that the iron and clay feet suggested the Roman Empire, divided in the late A. D. 300s into a strong eastern half and a weak western one.
(10.4 square kilometers), surrounded by a set of double walls, an outer wall 12 feet (3.7 meters) thick and an inner one 21 feet (6.4 meters) thick. Around the outside were a hundred towers, many of them 60 feet (18.3 meters) high, and beyond those a series of moats to further protect the city.
There were nine major gates to Babylon, the most famous of which was the Ishtar Gate (ISH-tahr) in the north. Covered in decorative figures and colored bricks, it was partially reconstructed in the 1920s and placed on display in Berlin's Pergamum Museum (PUHR-guh-muhm). Through the city ran the Euphrates River (yoo-FRAY-teez), across which Nebuchadnezzar erected a bridge some 400 feet (121.9 meters) long.
There was also a great ziggurat (ZIG-uh-raht), or temple tower, which stood about 300 feet (91.4 meters) high, as well as a huge temple to Marduk built by Nebuchadnezzar. In addition, some fifty temples (of which Nebuchadnezzar claimed to have built, or partially built, sixteen) dotted the city.
Then there were the fabulous Hanging Gardens, lush terraces covered with all manner of plant life, which Nebuchadnezzar supposedly built in order to satisfy Amyntis's longing for her mountain home. Whether or not this is true, the gardens certainly existed. If there were ever a Babylonian ruler with the power to command such a building project, it was Nebuchadnezzar.
The Greek historian Herodotus (see entry) visited Babylon years later, when it lay in ruins, but he still marveled at its glory. Perhaps he was the first to identify the Hanging Gardens as one of the ancient world's Seven Wonders.
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