The Hanging Gardens of Babylon By Sabrina Bajwa

Location  Near the Euphrates River  Mesopotamia – present day Iraq  The gardens do not exist today.

When  Approximately 2500 years ago  Started in 600 BC  No one knows how long it took, or if the gardens even existed.

Purpose and Uses  King Nebakanezer had the gardens built for his wife, Amytis.  She missed her hometown.  Babylon was dry and barren.  The gardens resembled where she used to live.  The terraces in the gardens were protected from the sun.

Building the Gardens  They built brick arches and pillars to hold the gardens.  Next, workmen built terraces on top of the arches.  The terraces were lined with lead, then a layer of soil for plants.  They imported many types of plants.  They used baked brick and asphalt to build the pillars.

Description and Uniqueness  The garden was planted on a hill with built in terraces.  Underneath, there were rooms, protected from the sun.  The gardens at their highest point, were 80 feet high.  Many plants were planted onto of the terraces.

Irrigation  A chain pump was used to irrigate the plants.  A chain pump has two large wheels with a chain.  Buckets start at the bottom, filled with water from the river.  Then at the top, the water would travel through channels, irrigating the whole garden.

Ancient Forsight  The Hanging Gardens are one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.  The Gardens of Versaille  Similar to the Babylonian Gardens in terms of its grandioseness and variety in plants and shrubs.  Because we do not know if these gardens existed or exactly what they looked like, it is hard to find a modern-day parallel.

Bibliography  tml   ient-wonders/  