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CASE #FGV0NQ · 2 entities · 1 connections
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World may never have actually been in Babylon at all — and the archaeologist who spent decades searching for it there may have been looking in the wrong city entirely.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, were said to be an extraordinary tiered garden built in the city of Babylon. Despite extensive archaeological excavation of the actual site, no confirmed physical evidence of the gardens has ever been found there, leading some historians to propose the legendary gardens may have actually existed in the rival city of Nineveh instead.
⇄disputed
Quick facts
- →The Hanging Gardens are described in ancient Greek and Roman sources as an extraordinary tiered, irrigated garden, traditionally said to have been built by King Nebuchadnezzar II for his wife.
- →No description of the gardens survives from a contemporary Babylonian source — all accounts come from later Greek and Roman writers, writing centuries after the gardens' supposed construction.
- →Extensive 20th-century archaeological excavation of Babylon's actual physical site has found no confirmed structural evidence matching the described gardens.
- →Assyriologist Stephanie Dalley proposed in the 1990s and 2000s that the gardens were more likely built by King Sennacherib in the rival city of Nineveh, based on her translation of cuneiform texts describing an elaborate irrigated garden there matching many of the legendary gardens' described features.
Entities on file
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Hanging Gardens of Babylon (location)
Legendary ancient wonder traditionally located in Babylon; no confirmed archaeological evidence has been found there, and some researchers propose it was actually in Nineveh.
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Stephanie Dalley (person)
Assyriologist who proposed the Hanging Gardens were actually built in Nineveh by King Sennacherib, based on cuneiform text analysis.
→ proposed a new location for → Hanging Gardens of Babylon✓documented