Babylon

(Sumerian Kadingirra, Akkadian Babilu, literally “gate of god”), in antiquity a city in northern Mesopotamia on the banks of the Euphrates; the ruins of Babylon are near the modern city of Hilla (Iraq). It was first mentioned in the legend of Sargon the Akkadian (third millennium B.C.). Babylon’s importance grew during the time of the first Babylonian dynasty (1894-1595 B.C.). Under Hammurabi it was transformed into a major political, cultural, and economic center not only of Babylonia but of all South-west Asia. About 1595 B.C., Babylon was captured by the Hittites, and about 1518 it fell under the sway of the Kassites. At the beginning of the first millennium, Assyria and the Aramaean tribes, the Chaldeans, fought for Babylon. In 732, Babylon became part of the Assyrian state. In 689 it was completely destroyed by the Assyrian king Sennacherib as punishment for an uprising. It was rebuilt about 680 by Sennacherib’s successor Esarhaddon. In 626, Nabopolassar, a Chaldean, seized power in Babylon and ruled from 626 to 604. Under Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled from 604 to 562, the city reached its golden age. A new architectural ensemble was created with magnificent palaces and mighty defensive installations. The city was captured in 539 by the Persian troops of Cyrus II. It was seized in 331 by Alexander of Macedon. Babylon was turned over in 312 to one of Alexander’s generals, the Macedonian Seleucus, who resettled most of the inhabitants of Babylon in his capital Seleucia, built near Babylon. After that Babylon lost its primacy and finally left the historical arena by the second century A.D.