History of Babylon

Babylon was founded by a group of rebellious descendants of Noah approximately 100 years after the great flood. Babylon was a hotbed of idolatry and false religion.

From about 2000 to 500 BC Babylon was the capital of the Babylonian Empire and a major center of religion and trade.

Around 1900 Semitic peoples, possibly known as the Amorites, migrate into Mesopotamian and capture the city-state of Babylon.

It was also the site of the legendary Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

During the 1700 BC, Babylon had been the center of large empire under King Hammurabi, the sixth Amorite king of Babylon.

Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rulers of the ancient world, Hammurabi is thought to have come to the throne of Babylon in about 1792 BC.  Hammurabi’s capital was protected by strong walls.

The last king of the Old Babylonian Empire, Samsuditana, is over thrown by Hittite invaders.

Then, in the 7th century BC, the Assyrians captured and sacked the city.

It was not until the Babylonian general Nabopolassar defeated the Assyrians in 626 BC. By 600 BC, Nabopolassar son’s King Nebuchadnezzar had fashioned Babylon into the pagan empire of Babylonia, a center of religion, commerce, and government.

He rebuilt the capital and transformed it into the finest city in the ancient Middle East.

There is a romantic legend that the Hanging Gardens were built for Nebuchadnezzar’s wife, Amytis, a Mede who missed the green mountain.

Babylonia may have been the most powerful monarchy in the history of the world.

Babylon fell in one night to the armies of Cyrus the Persian in 539 BC and ceased to be a world power.
History of Babylon

Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved ancient law code, created circa 1760 BC in ancient Babylon. It was enacted by the sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi.

Hammurabi was the ruler who chiefly established the greatness of Babylon, the world first metropolis. He was the man of war and also a man of peace.

Hammurabi is best remembered for his law code. Although the Sumerian compiled earlier law codes, Hammurabi’s code was the famous in early Mesopotamian history. The code as carved upon a black stone monument, eight feet high, and clearly intended to be reared in public view.

Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi reveals a society with a system of strict justice. It is a list of 282 rules gathered from existing sources and written down in one place. This rules state the specific ways people were to behave among their fellow men and conduct transactions.

The subjects of Babylon were to follow these rules under penalty of punishment. Penalties for criminal offenses were severe and varied according to the social class of the victim.

The code regulates in clear and definite strokes the organization of society. The judge who blunders in a law case is to be expelled from his judgeship forever, and heavily fined. The witness who testifies falsely is to be slain.
Code of Hammurabi

Nebuchadnezzar

Babylon became part of the Assyrian Empire in the late 18th century BC.  In turn the Assyrians were driven out by Nabopolassar, who founded the Neo-Babylonian dynasty around 615 BC.

His son Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561 BC) built the kingdom into an empire that covered most of southwest Asia.

Nebuchadnezzar changed the dynastic order and the history of the years following the death of his father – he eliminated his brother and brother’s son as kings preceding his own reign as if they were illegitimate occupants of the throne.

Nebuchadnezzar gave the city of Babylon its most famous feature, the Hanging Gardens, as well as fiery furnaces used both for commercial enterprise and for the torture and destruction of Babylon’s foes.

Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar‘s imperial capital underwent a huge rebuilding program – new temples and palace buildings, defensive walls and gates and a splendid processional way, to make it the largest city in the known world, covering some 2500 acres.

Using Code of Hammurabi as his basis, Nebuchadnezzar created a stable, generally lawful Babylonina society. Criminals faced severe penalties ranging from torture to death.

After Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon’s power faded. The city first fell into hands of the Persian Empire in 539 BC and then in 331 BBC it was conquered again, this time by the Macedonian general Alexander the Great.
Nebuchadnezzar

Amorite king of Babylon: Hammurabi

Hammurabi was a King of Babylonia in the 18th century BC. He grew up in ancient Mesopotamia. After his father died, Hammurabi became king. A famous code of laws is attributed to him.

Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rulers of the ancient world, Hammurabi is thought to have come to the throne of Babylon in about 1792 BC. He was the sixth king of the First Dynasty of Babylonia and ruled for nearly 55 years.

Babylon during that period of time was a commercial center for most of the known and civilized world.

Hammurabi wanted to control more land. He wanted to rule all the city-states of Mesopotamia. After a protracted battle for dominance with a neighboring kingdom centered on the city-state of Larsa, Hammurabi was able to extend his influence over majority of the southern portion of Mesopotamia.

Following his success in the south, Hammurabi turned his attention north and within a few years, had attained mastery over all Mesopotamia.

After the reign of Hammurabi, Babylon passed into the hands of people called the Kassites, who ruled Babylon from about 1600 to 1150 BC. Then, in the seventh century BC, the Assyrians captured and sacked the city.
Amorite king of Babylon: Hammurabi