Chaldea
Chaldea was an ancient region of southern Babylonia associated with the Chaldeans. Greek writers sometimes used the name for Babylonia more broadly.
Chaldeans: An ancient people associated with southern Babylonia, prominent in the region’s first millennium BCE history. Their name became attached to the region and, in Greek usage, sometimes to Babylonia as a whole.
Mesopotamia: A historical region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, including much of modern Iraq. Chaldea occupied the southern part of this broader riverland region.
Nebuchadnezzar II: The Neo-Babylonian king who ruled from 605 to 562 BCE and expanded Babylonian power. He was the most famous ruler of the Chaldean dynasty based in Babylonia.
Fall of Babylon: The Persian capture of Babylon in 539 BCE, which ended the Neo-Babylonian Empire. It brought Chaldean dynastic rule in Babylonia to a close.
Babylonia: An ancient civilization and territory centered on Babylon in southern Mesopotamia. Chaldea formed part of Babylonia, and Greek writers sometimes used its name for the wider land.
Lower Mesopotamia: The low-lying southern part of Mesopotamia, centered on the lower Tigris and Euphrates. Chaldea’s core lay in this southern alluvial landscape.
Nabonidus: The last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, who ruled from 556 to 539 BCE. His reign ended the dynasty associated with Chaldean rule in Babylonia.
Chaldean dynasty: The ruling house founded by Nabopolassar that governed the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Its rule made Chaldean identity especially prominent in the history of Babylonia.
Ur: An ancient Sumerian city in southern Mesopotamia, near the head of the Persian Gulf. Ur lay within the southern Babylonian landscape associated with Chaldea.
Euphrates: A major river of western Asia that flows through modern Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. Its lower course crossed the territory associated with Chaldea.