Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are the mythical gardens that decorated the capital of the
New Babylonian Empire, built by its greatest king, Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC).
It is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and it was indicative of a wonderful
ability to create a beautiful green plant environment in the heart of a dry desert region,
as if he had planned against all the laws of nature.
Nebuchadnezzar II built it for his wife Semiramis to express his respect for her. As the legend said that his wife longed to see the landscapes of forests and roses that she used to
see in her homeland, and for that reason these gardens were built, and they were built after
the occupation of Palestine by King Nebuchadnezzar; Where he brought the Jews from
there as slaves and obliged them to work day and night to finish it, and that was the year
600 BC.
Description of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
There are a number of descriptions that agree that the gardens were located near the royal
palace in Babylon, now in southern Iraq, and were placed on domed terraces.
It was also described as being irrigated with an exceptional system of irrigation and roofed
with stone balconies, on which layers of various materials such as reeds, bitumen and lead
were laid, so that the irrigation water did not seep through the terraces. Although no
specific traces of the Hanging Gardens have been found, German archaeologist Robert
Koldewey discovered an unusual series of foundation rooms and cellars in the northeastern corner of the palace in Babylon. A well in one of the cellars may have been used in
conjunction with a chain pump and thus it was thought that it might have been part of the
towering hanging gardens infrastructure.(1)
How to water plants
The flowers and plants cultivated throughout the gardens were irrigated through screw
pumps placed on the Euphrates River, and they followed the method of hydraulic watering
in that, and these machines used in irrigation themselves were amazing. The people of Babylon were known at that time for their proficiency in engineering, medicine and astronomy .