Hanging Gardens of Babylon
-According to ancient Greek poets, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built near the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq by the Babylonian king Nebuchadrezzar II around 600 B.C.
-The gardens were said to have been planted as high as 75 feet in the air on a huge square brick terrace that was laid out in steps like a theater. -The king allegedly built the towering gardens to ease his wife’s homesickness for the natural beauty of her home in Media (the northwestern part of modern-day Iraq). -Later writers described how people could walk underneath the beautiful gardens, which rested on tall stone columns. -Modern scientists have deduced that for the gardens to survive they would have had to be irrigated using a system consisting of a pump, waterwheel and cisterns to carry water from the Euphrates many feet into the air. |