A message on the topic of the fortress walls of Babylon. Great Mysteries of Babylon

For quite a long time, scientists considered the legend of the Tower of Babel to be only a symbolic legend of human arrogance. This was the case until, at the end of the last century, archaeologists arriving from Europe discovered the exact location of the ruins of Babylon. A hundred kilometers south of Baghdad, lifeless hills with flat tops and steep slopes rose for many centuries. Local residents considered them natural features of the relief. Bedouins pitched tents on convenient peaks, and pious Arabs praised Allah. None of them knew that the greatest city of all times lay under their feet. The German archaeologist Robert Koldewey went here in 1899, who a few years later will go down in history as the man who excavated Babylon.

Excavation of the hills on the plain of Sahn, which means "Frying Pan", began in the spring of 1899. Luck came to Koldewey from the first days and did not leave over the next fifteen years, during which he, together with two hundred workers, excavated evidence of the former existence of an ancient civilization here. The archaeologist got an idea of ​​the scale of Babylon after just a few months of work. First, he excavated a mud brick wall 7 meters wide and 12 meters high. At a distance of 12 meters from it, the earth hid another wall of baked bricks almost 8 meters wide, and behind it was a third wall 3 meters wide, which once surrounded a deep ditch lined with bricks. The space between the first two walls was at one time filled with earth, turning the two walls into one impregnable and completely impenetrable rampart. On the inner wall there were watchtowers every 50 meters. Subsequently, Koldewey counted 360 fortress towers! Thus, the inner wall of Babylon was more than 18 kilometers long! If we consider, as in the Middle Ages, that “a city is a walled settlement,” then Babylon, built more than 4 thousand years ago, has remained for all times the largest city built by man on planet Earth!

Workers literally inundated Koldewey with finds. These were fragments of glazed brick bas-reliefs, copper-clad city gates, majestic winged lions skillfully made by ancient sculptors.
The artifacts hidden underground overshadowed the brilliance and grandeur of the masterpieces of Egyptian culture and posed an insoluble mystery to the scientific world: where did such a highly developed people come from in ancient Mesopotamia?

Archaeologists now believe that ancient Babylon- this is the last glimpse of the mysterious civilization of the Sumerians, a people who settled several thousand years ago between the Tigris and Euphrates. The Sumerians built large stone cities. Their gold jewelry still evokes the envy of famous Parisian jewelers, and the tombs, where the discovered remains of hundreds of sacrificed people lie, make seasoned archaeologists shudder. Little is known about the Sumerians, but there is evidence that it was their people who were destroyed by the Great Flood. In any case, after the cultural layer of the Sumerian civilization, archaeologists discovered a two-meter layer of clay, indicating a catastrophic flood that once occurred here.

It is likely that not only the Old Testament Noah survived the Flood.
The surviving representatives of the Sumerian people founded the city of Babylon, in which the greatness and corruption of a civilization destroyed by God or the elements was revived. But all these discoveries and hypotheses, shedding light on the mysterious legends of the past, appeared after Koldewey. The German archaeologist himself found archaeological confirmation of two legends - about the Tower of Babel and about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
First, in the northeastern part of the ancient city, Koldewey excavated the remains of basements with an unusual vault shape. The archaeologist was puzzled - for the first time in his long work in Babylon, he encountered underground structures. Moreover, inside they hid a well consisting of three shafts.
Technical experts told the archaeologist that the three-shaft well had once served as a water intake and had a belt lift intended for a continuous supply of water. In addition, the vault of the underground structure was lined with stone, which Koldewey discovered only once near the northern wall. And then it dawned on the archaeologist! All ancient writers - Josephus, Diodorus, Stesias, Strabo, as well as the cuneiform tablets of the ancient Assyrians - only twice mentioned the use of stone in Babylon instead of the usual brick - during the construction of the northern wall and during the construction of the hanging gardens of Queen Semiramis.

The found cellars, the only possible conclusion followed, were the vault of evergreen gardens Babylon. They had a water supply system that was unique for that time, providing precious moisture to the giant multi-terrace garden structure. It was this that Herodotus saw and ranked as one of the wonders of the world. Only the basements of the once magnificent structure have reached us, from which, alas, it is impossible to judge its architecture and height. Only the legend has survived that Semiramis threw herself down from the terrace of her beloved hanging gardens after handing over the throne to her son. While she was falling, her hands turned into dove wings, and her body into the body of a dove, and the queen, who, according to legend, possessed witchcraft knowledge, flew away from this world forever.

Koldewey's second discovery, which stunned the entire Western world, was the remains of the legendary Tower of Babel. The Babylonians called it "E-temenanki" - "Temple of the cornerstone of heaven and earth." To this day, only the foundation of the colossal structure has survived. The width of the square foundation excavated by a German archaeologist was 90 meters. On all sides, the base of the tower was surrounded by the ruins of a wall, to which, as Koldewey wrote, all kinds of religious buildings were adjacent. The Tower of Babel itself served as a gigantic sanctuary, on top of which stood the temple of the god Marduk.

The story of the fate of the Tower of Babel cuneiform clay tablets excavated by archaeologists in Babylon and other cities of the Assyro-Babylonian kingdom, and testimonies of Greek historians were brought to us. “The tower rose to the sky in giant terraces,” says Herodotus. “It consisted of seven towers stacked on top of each other. The base of the tower was 90 meters wide (that’s what Koldewey found) and the tower was the same height.
The first floor had a height of 33 meters, the second - 18 meters and the remaining four - 6 meters. The top floor, 15 meters high, was occupied by the magnificent temple of the Babylonian god Marduk, covered in gold and lined with blue glazed brick; it burned in the sun with a blue-golden fire and was visible for many kilometers."
It is unknown when the tower was first erected, but, as follows from the story of Nabopolassar, before him the tower was destroyed several times by the Assyrian invader kings Sargon and Sancherib. And always the next ruler of Babylon again revived it from the ruins. This time the restoration work turned out to be so difficult that Nabopolassar did not have time to complete it in 75
years of his reign. His son Nebuchadnezzar had to continue the construction of the tower. Another 40 years later, the tower appeared before the Babylonian inhabitants in all its glory.
The temple of Marduk glittered with blue and purple light high in the sky. There was nothing in the chambers of the temple except a golden table and a golden bed covered with brocade. According to the beliefs of the Babylonians, the god Marduk himself spent the night there, and access to the chambers of the temple was closed to any mortal. Only one chosen beauty spent there night after night, pleasing God with nightly caresses. “However,” wrote Herodotus, “a visit to the temple by a living god seems to me very doubtful.” On the lower floor of the Tower of Babel was the second temple of Marduk. There stood a huge statue of the god, in front of which sacrifices were made. According to Herodotus, it was made of pure gold and weighed almost 24 tons! Whoever finds it will probably become one of the richest people in the world.

A processional road led to the foot of the temple, along which crowds of priests and believers moved during the holidays. Koldewey excavated the processional road and was forced to admit that no modern
highway. Ancient builders paved the road with square slabs one meter on a side. They lay on a brick floor, also covered with a layer of asphalt. The edges of the slabs were decorated with inlay, and the joints and gaps between the slabs were filled with asphalt. To top it all off, on the inside of each slab, the stonemasons carved the inscription: “I am Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, I paved the Babylonian street for Lord Marduk.”

Now it is difficult to imagine what level Babylonian engineering science reached, thanks to which such majestic structures as the Tower and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were erected. As a legacy to future civilizations, the Babylonians left their own number system, amazingly accurate methods for calculating the movement of celestial bodies and... the belief about the black cat.

When linguists deciphered cuneiform tablets from Babylon, it turned out that at that time people also considered a black cat running across the road to be a harbinger of misfortune.
Disasters and failures haunted Babylon until the end of its days. After Nebuchadnezzar, the city was captured by the Persian king Cyrus. But when he saw the Tower of Babel, he was so shocked that he ordered the building to be preserved and even bequeathed to build a miniature copy of it on his grave. The Persian king Xerxes turned out to be less sentimental. Having taken Babylon, he left behind the ruins of the Tower of Babel, which Alexander the Great saw on his way to India. Amazed by the scale of the gigantic ruins, Alexander stood in front of them, as if spellbound, and then detained his army there for two months. All this time, the soldiers of the great commander removed the garbage that had accumulated among the ruins, paying tribute to the memory of lost greatness...

Once again, on the pages of our electronic publication, let us mentally transport ourselves to Mesopotamia. This state also goes by other names - Mesopotamia, Mesopotamia. The meaning remains the same, it was located in the territory between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Where the rivers converged at a minimum distance, the city of Babylon was built. The legendary Babylon is known to us from many prominent buildings of that time; today we will focus on its walls, which were included in the very first list of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Golden Age of Babylon

Large-scale construction in Babylon took place during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. Many famous buildings are now associated with the name of this creator king - the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Tower of Babel, the Ishtar Gate with the processional road and, of course, the powerful walls of the city.

Bringing the story closer to the Babylonian walls, it is worth noting that Nebuchadnezzar took a close approach to creating a powerful defense for the entire city. They create a moat, cedar gates patched with copper plates, a defensive rampart, many bastions, and water obstacles. Under this ruler, the fortress was truly impregnable.

Rediscovery of the city

The city was divided in half by the Euphrates. A bridge connected its banks at the top and an underground tunnel at the bottom, built during the time of the legendary Semiramis. Scientists still have debates about the creation of Babylon. Some believe that its founder is the Assyrian king Nin, others give this right to Bel and even Semiramis. Who was the founder of the city remains a great mystery. But the laurels of discovering Babylon in a new way now belong to Robert Koldewey.

Indeed, a complex and exciting work fell into the hands of this researcher. He had to cleanse the city of Babylon from biblical legends and bring it to clean water. Koldewey spent nineteen years excavating Babylon; enormous material and monetary resources were spent.

"Wonderful" find

But as it turned out, the game was worth the candle. A team of archaeologists managed to excavate two rows of legendary walls. Their total length was about 90 kilometers. This is even larger than the circumference of old London, and about two million people lived in it. In this case, one can only think about the population of Babylon. An additional surprise came after further excavations revealed a third belt of walls.

Restored road of ancient Babylon

If it were possible to dismantle these walls of Babylon brick by brick and lay them out in a single row, then the total length would be enough to encircle the Earth at the equator more than 10 times. The number of bricks is amazing and the need for their rapid production. Calculations show that to obtain them, 250 factories had to operate with an annual output of about 10 million copies of finished products.

Glazed tiles and Marduk road

An important detail of the decoration of Babylon are glazed tiles. They were the ones who laid the walls on the inside. The tiles were covered with various ornamented patterns and images. Findings of these tiles began from the first days of excavations and continued throughout their entire duration.

Restored walls at Berlin's Pergamon Museum

The famous Marduk Road, better known as the Processional Road, leading from the Ishtar Gate to the main temple was covered with similar tiles. It was surrounded on both sides by high walls, on which walking lions were depicted, instilling fear in travelers of religious processions. In this fear, some researchers see another function of the road - defensive.

The impenetrable walls of Babylon

Once you think about how difficult it will be for the enemy to storm the city, everything will immediately fall into place. On the first approaches, he will need to overcome a ditch filled with water. Next, he will have to get over 3 belts of powerful walls and break the main gate. Let's assume that in some miraculous way our theoretical enemy managed to do this too. And then he finds himself on a wide road open for shooting by steles and cannonballs. On both sides it is surrounded by walls, lions and a hail of fire from the defenders of the fortress. Thus, the Processional Road, according to its design, skillfully transformed into the Road of Death for the enemy.

Lion on the Processional Road

But still, in 539 BC, Babylon was captured. This whole system of complex defense, about which legends were formed in the ancient world, does not help him either. The impregnable walls of ancient Babylon continued to faithfully serve the city, but its inhabitants sold out and opened the gates to the Persian king Cyrus. Since that time, Babylon has fallen into decline, carrying secrets into history, many of which have yet to be discovered.

Some ancient Greek scholars included the walls of Babylon among the wonders of the world. What were these walls like that they had such a high opinion of them?

First of all, it must be said that the city was built more than once. At the beginning of the 7th century. BC e. it was destroyed by the Assyrian king Sennacherib, but soon after his death it was rebuilt by the king’s son Esarhaddon and other rulers of Assyria. In the VI century. BC e., when Babylon had already become independent, the most powerful of its kings, Nebuchadnezzar, completed the construction of the city walls. The fortifications built by Nebuchadnezzar were considered by Hellenic travelers to be one of the wonders of the world. The city had two walls - internal and external, to which in the 6th century. BC e. another one was added to protect the outskirts of Babylon (the so-called “moat wall”). The outer wall was called Nemeth-Ellil ("Residence of the god Ellil"), and the higher inner wall was called Imgur-Ellil ("Ellil Heard"). Ellil was the god of the neighboring city of Nigshur, whose walls, in turn, were named after the supreme Babylonian god Bel.

The walls of Babylon were built from raw brick and lined with more durable baked brick. Nemeth-Ellil had a width of 3.7 m, Imgur-Ellil - 6.5 m. Their height is unknown, but it is assumed that it was at least 25 m! Towers were erected on the Nemeth Ellil rampart every 20.5 m. Both the walls and towers had loopholes and battlements, which made it possible for the defenders to hit the enemy while remaining almost invulnerable.

At a distance of 33.5 m in front of Nemeth Ellil there was a ditch with water 12.5 m wide. Its walls were made of baked bricks and had battlements. The ditch was connected to the Euphrates River, on which Babylon stood, and surrounded the entire city.

One can only guess how the Babylonians managed to prepare the amount of brick required for these buildings. The two main walls alone required at least 2 billion bricks. But in addition to the walls, many other brick structures were erected in the city. And they managed to produce material for them, despite the lack of modern technology.

The fortifications of Babylon were a magnificent sight. Mighty walls lined with blue and green tiles, eight gates, and the most magnificent of them are the gates of the goddess Ishtar. They were covered not only with multi-colored tiles, but also with images of lions and dragons. The same images covered the walls of the “Road of Marduk”, which ran from the Ishtar Gate into the city. Solemn processions moved along it on holidays. Sacred awe covered the participants in these processions when they walked along the “road of Marduk” - walls loomed over them, from which hundreds of lions and dragons with gaping mouths looked out!

Who knows, perhaps the images of these formidable animals were intended to frighten not the participants in the processions, but the enemies if they broke through the Ishtar Gate. But it was impossible to take the Babylonian fortifications with the then level of siege technology. And yet the city fell - in 539 BC. Persian king Cyrus captured Babylon. According to the story of the Greek historian Herodotus, the Persians managed to divert water from the ditch and enter the city unexpectedly for its defenders. According to another version, the gates were opened by Babylonian priests who had quarreled with their king Nabonidus. This has happened more than once in history - no fortifications can save you from treason. They did not save Babylon either.

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It is said that the famous walls of Babylon were the size of a modern nine-story building. They were built from bricks - and at the same time so much building material was spent on them that if it were possible to dismantle the walls brick by brick and lay them out in one line, then our planet could well be encircled along the equator at least ten times.

Scientists claim that ancient Babylon was built no later than the 3rd millennium BC, was destroyed and rebuilt more than once, and the highest rise in the economic and cultural life of the country occurred during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (ruled from 605 to 567 BC .e.), who, being an excellent ruler and a brilliant commander, paid a lot of attention not only to the conquest and annexation of small kingdoms and principalities to Babylon, but also to the strengthening of his own state.

It is not surprising that he was extremely attentive to creating a powerful defense for the city, and turned ancient Babylon into such an impregnable fortress that any enemy who wanted to capture the city would hardly be able to overcome all the obstacles that stood in his way:

• A ditch filled with water;
• The high and powerful walls of Babylon, built in three rows;
• Copper-clad cedar gates;
• The road of Marduk, shot from all sides by the defenders of the city. The enemy would have been unable to hide behind any obstacle: on either side the road of death was surrounded by impenetrable walls with monsters depicted on them.

What were the walls?

Ancient Babylon was built in the shape of a rectangle, the area of ​​which was 4 km², and taking into account the territory covered by the outer wall, it was much larger - 10 km². It was possible to get in/out of the city only through the gates; there were eight of them in total.

The walls of Babylon made a particular impression on visitors: they were so high and wide that they were almost immediately included by many Hellenes in the list of “Seven Wonders of the World”, from where over time they were supplanted by the Alexandria Lighthouse built on Egyptian territory (and even then, they were periodically returned there, replacing the same lighthouse or the Gardens of Babylon).

At first, Babylon was surrounded by two walls built of baked bricks. Their height is still unknown, but, apparently, they were no lower than 25 meters and went ten meters down, underground. Some scientists admit that their height was much higher and could be about a hundred meters.

Imkur-Elil

This was the main, inner, highest wall, the width of which was initially 3.7 m, then, during the time of Nebuchadnezzar, it was expanded to 5.5 m.

Like Babylon, it had a rectangular shape, and its length around the Western city was 3580 m, around the Eastern city - 4435 m. Thus, the total length of the inner wall exceeded eight kilometers. Imkur-Elil had two entrances through massive gates on each side, and towers were built into it every 20 meters. There were battlements at the top of the wall, on the towers and gates.

Nemeth-Ellil

The outer wall (shaft) was not so wide - 3.75 m. Along the perimeter it encircled the inner wall and practically duplicated it: every 20.5 meters towers with loopholes and battlements were built into it, allowing the city’s defenders to hit attackers while remaining at the same time invulnerable. The gate from the inner wall continued into the outer one and was common to both lines of fortifications.

Scientists suggest that since the distance between the inner and outer walls was 12 meters, then to strengthen the defense capability, the engineers could order the space between them to be filled with earth and gravel to the very top of the walls, and thus the width of the structure could easily exceed 20 meters.

This hypothesis is not without foundation, since many chroniclers hint at such parameters. For example, Herodotus, Curtius Rufus, Strabo write that two chariots could well have missed each other on the Babylonian walls.

Moat wall

After some time, another adobe wall was added to them, designed to protect the outskirts of Babylon - the Moat Wall. The distance between it and the outer wall was about thirty meters, and in front it was surrounded by a ditch filled with water, connecting to the Euphrates.

Death Road

No less than the Babylonian walls, archaeologists were struck by the absolutely straight road leading from the main gate to the Temple of Marduk, the width of which was about 24 meters. People walking along it first passed the gate of the goddess Ishtar - a well-fortified structure with four towers erected near it. Then, passing the palace complex, the road of Marduk led them directly to the temple.

The Marduk Road looked unusual and was intended not only for pilgrims, but also represented a real trap for invaders (if they could get past the insurmountable walls).

In the center, the ancient masters paved the road with huge stone slabs, and strips of red brick were laid along the entire length of the road. The Babylonians filled the gap between the strips and slabs with asphalt. Along the road there were absolutely smooth, jagged walls, about seven meters high.

Towers were located between the walls at equal distances from each other. The walls were lined with shiny glazed blue tiles, on which various monsters were depicted: at first they were menacingly striding, grinning lions two meters tall - about 120 in total.

Starting from the gates of the goddess Ishtar, dragons, horned half-crocodiles, half-dogs covered with scales with bird legs instead of paws were already grinning at people - there were more than five hundred of them in total. Among these animals one could also see formidable armed warriors.

If the enemies had managed to get past the formidable walls of Babylon and the copper-plated gates, the road of Marduk would have been on their way in any case. And then from the towers located along it, arrows, spears, and other equally deadly objects would rain down on the enemy, and they would have no way to hide (except perhaps retreat).

At this time, huge lions, dragons, half-dogs would grin at them from all sides, and the road itself would ultimately turn out to be the road of death.

The Mystery of the Walls of Babylon

It still remains a mystery how the ancient craftsmen managed to obtain such a quantity of building material in order to build the walls of Babylon: almost all calculations show that in our time for their production they would have to use 250 factories, which would produce at least 10 per year million bricks.

Scientists are also haunted by the question of where in Mesopotamia, with its small amount of vegetation, did the builders take firewood for firing (both bricks and glazed tiles were processed)?

After all, about 2 billion bricks were used only for the construction of the two main walls (in addition, it should be taken into account that the city also had many other buildings made of this material).

Many believe that it is unlikely that this would have happened without the knowledge of the Babylonian priests, who could learn to burn bricks and tiles without the participation of firewood, for example, with the help of special optical mirrors and the sun. This version has not been proven and the secret has not yet been revealed.

Fall of Babylon

Despite the fact that it was almost impossible to capture Babylon with the then level of siege technology, the city fell: in 539 BC. it was captured by the king of Persia, Cyrus. There are two versions of why this happened. According to the first hypothesis (less probable), the Persians managed to divert the water and unexpectedly penetrate the city.

The second version says that either the priests quarreled with Nabonidus, who ruled the country at that time, or someone from the ruling elite was bribed. In any case, the gates were open - and no walls can save you from betrayal

The Bible connects the last time of earthly history with a number of events that represent mysteries. One of these secrets originates in the ancient Tower of Babel, which was built under the leadership of Nimrod. To understand what is hidden within the mystery of Babylon, it is important to understand the meaning of what happened: people decided to make a name for themselves (by building a tower to the heavens) before scattering across the Earth. In fact, behind these few words lies something terrible. The author of the book of Revelation, John, speaks of a terrible vision that was shown to him and related to the end times:

3 And he led me in spirit into the desert; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.

4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, and had a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominations and the filthiness of her fornication;

5 And on her forehead was written a name: mystery, Babylon the great, mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.

6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses of Jesus, and when I saw her I was amazed with great astonishment.

(Rev. 17:3-6)

This text speaks of the mystery of Babylon, which is here identified with the center of wickedness and is a symbol of opposition to God and all that is holy. St. Andrew of Caesarea[i] believed that the wife in question represents end-time society as a whole. A society that has absorbed everything that is evil and rejected the good.

Restored Empire

Thus, at the moment when the Tower of Babel began to be built, a mysterious mechanism of self-destruction of humanity was launched, which did not learn from the lesson of its ancestors who died during the Flood. According to Josephus, a famous historian and military leader of the 1st century, the builders of the tower were driven not only by vanity, but also by the desire to somehow take revenge on God for the Flood. Instead of reflecting on their lives and correcting themselves, the builders of the tower to the sky hoped, in this way, to also protect themselves from a new flood, if one happened. The desperate madness of this undertaking could only be fueled by a conscious confrontation with Heaven. If God, in His mercy, had not then divided the languages ​​of people, the end of civilization would have come long ago. The evil will of a united humanity would destroy people. That is why Babylon, in the Biblical understanding, was chosen as a symbol of evil and wickedness. Although the mystery of Babylon was suspended, it was only until a certain time, known only to the Creator. Currently, the ideas of Babylon are again gaining strength to realize their plans in their entirety. The restored empire of Rome, represented by the European Union, which began to actively cultivate anti-Christian values, is only the beginning of the implementation of this secret.

If we talk directly about the Tower of Babel itself, little is known about it. Most historians, when exploring this issue, refer to Herodotus, who visited those places and described the customs of Babylon of his time and the ruins of the ancient tower. He believed that the grandiose foundation he saw was ruins many times restored tower...

[i] Archbishop of Caesarea Cappadocia (VI-VII century)

Ancient Greek historian (484-425 BC)

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