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Where Did The Hanging Gardens Grow?
According to ancient Greek writers, one of the wonders of the world was an enormous ‘hanging' or terraced garden. One description says it was built by a king to please his wife who missed the wooded hillsides of her native land. The king has been identified with Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 B.C.) who married a Median (Iranian) princess. Nebuchadnezzar certainly rebuilt his capital of Babylon on a grand scale but none of his inscriptions mention such a garden. A large area of Babylon was excavated by German archaeologists at the beginning of the twentieth century and nothing has been discovered to support the idea that the Hanging Gardens were in Babylon proper. Indeed, many Greek writers imply that the Hanging Gardens were not in Babylon at all.
However, the inscriptions of the Assyrian king Sennacherib (704-681 B.C.) describe in detail how he diverted several mountain streams to bring water on an aqueduct into his garden at Nineveh, raising it to the top of the garden by means of bronze screws, and building artificial hills upon stone vaults. This garden was built for his Queen Tashmetum-sharrat. He described it as a wonder for all peoples. This, therefore, may be the origin of the story of the Hanging Gardens and many details of Sennacherib's inscriptions confirm the later Greek accounts.

Whatever the origin of the story of the Hanging Gardens, parks and landscaped gardens were a very important part of ancient Near Eastern royal building projects. Indeed, the Persian word for garden gives us the word ‘paradise'. Exotic gardens continued to be a feature of Arab culture for centuries.
Artwork by Juan Ramón Alvarez de Lara Sieder
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test, Sep 28, 2011 - 09:46
Mesopotamian Cooking, Apr 2, 2011 - 11:10
\"Carefully lay out the fowls on a platter; spread over them the chopped pieces of gizzard and pluck, as well as the small sêpêtu breads which have been baked in the oven; sprinkle the whole with sauce, cover with the prepared crust and send to the table.\"
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