Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens were a legendary terraced garden traditionally said to have stood in ancient Babylon and counted among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Their existence at Babylon remains disputed.

Babylon: An ancient Mesopotamian city on the Euphrates, capital of the Babylonian Empire. The traditional setting, though archaeological evidence has not confirmed a garden there.
Berossus: A Babylonian priest who wrote a history of Babylonia in Greek around the early third century BCE. His lost account is among the earliest sources associated with the garden tradition.
Archimedes' screw: A water-raising device consisting of a helical surface inside a cylinder or trough. It is one proposed mechanism for moving water to the garden’s upper levels.
Nebuchadnezzar II: A Babylonian king who ruled from 605 to 562 BCE and expanded Babylon’s monuments and defenses. Later traditions credited him with building the gardens for his wife.
Nineveh: An ancient Assyrian city on the Tigris, near modern Mosul in Iraq. Some scholars locate the garden here, connecting its story to Assyrian royal gardens.
Diodorus Siculus: A Greek historian of the first century BCE who wrote a universal history. His description supplies details of the terraced structure and its water supply.
Chain pump: A pump that lifts water using a continuous chain fitted with disks or buckets. It could raise water from a river or well to elevated planting terraces.
Amytis of Media: A Median princess whom later accounts identify as Nebuchadnezzar II’s wife. The familiar story says the gardens were made to ease her homesickness for a green homeland.
Sennacherib: An Assyrian king who ruled from 704 to 681 BCE and built extensively at Nineveh. His inscriptions describe waterworks and gardens that may underlie the legend.
Strabo: A Greek geographer and historian whose work describes places and peoples across the ancient world. His account describes the garden’s terraces and a device for raising water.

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