There are many theories that we have today about this ancient wonder of the world since it is difficult to know exactly what it was like and where it was located because we do not have too much information, we only have a few and indirect writings about these gardens. These sources of information were described by people who never saw the gardens in person, based on the stories and other old previous descriptions. Many of these stories were based on oral descriptions, so they might have been able deviated from their reality. Therefore there is no writing to this day that is from someone who has seen these gardens for himself. Some of the most famous writings are those written by the Babylonian priest and writer Berus, who wrote several books, among which "Babyloniaca" stands out, in which he tells the story of Nebuchadnezzar (King of Babylon between 605-562 BC). Unfortunately these books were lost and we only have vestiges of these accounts thanks to the Roman historian Flavius Josephus who during the 1st century AD wrote numerous works in which is a description of the Gardens of Babylon based on the texts of Berus.
Other texts of which we have information come to us thanks to Diodorus of Sicily (Greek historian who lived during the 1st century). Strabo, a geographer who wrote a series of books entitled "History" and "Geography" in which he makes descriptions of these gardens based on previous stories. Quinte Curce also wrote about this wonder in his book "History of Alexander", finally it is worth mentioning Philo de Bysance whose book "De septem orbis speculis" describes the seven wonders of the ancient world.
One of the most widespread theories that we have today locates these gardens in Babylon, a city reigned by Nebuchadnezzar II at that time. According to legend, this king ordered the construction of these gardens as a sign of love for his wife, Queen Amytis, born in the Middle Kingdom. The longing for the forested mountains of the place where Amytis lived, led to the construction of these gardens.
To get a little deeper into this story we have to travel to Babylon, belonging to Lower Mesopotamia, land where various peoples like the Sumerians, Acadians, Guteos, Amorites, Assyrians, and different Indo-European peoples resided. Babylon stretched across a territory that ran from the Persian Gulf to what we know nowadays as the city of Baghdad in Irak. It became the capital of an empire during the 18th century BC and an important political and cultural center in its time.
If we want to know how the gardens of Babylon really were, we would have to read all the possible writings and then compare them, since many descriptions relate different characteristics of the gardens. However, all the stories coincide in its majesty, grandeur and beauty of this construction located on a square platform approximately 120 m long. Regarding height, theories are different, according to Diodorus of Sicily, it would be about 25 meters high, while other descriptions raise the height to 100 meters. Another unanimous feature present in the writings is the staggered shape of these gardens, thus looking like a small mountain with terraces. The terraces were not hanging or floating in the air as various writings say, they just protruded as if they were balconies. This characteristic of "hanging" is attributed by a literal translation of the Greek word "kremastos" which literally means "hanging".
Hold by stone columns to support the immense weight of the construction, the roof of each floor is located, built according to many writings, by stone, but according to the Greek historian Strabo, it was made of baked brick and asphalt, the theory that is the most probable since at this time the use of stone for the constructions was very rare and it was habitual to use brick. Also another detail that Strabo was the only one to describe, was the presence of vaulted ceilings, a technique that was used to better support the weight and therefore would make sense in this heavy construction. According to him, these vaulted ceilings would rest on cubic pillars filled with soil, which in turn would serve to plant the largest trees.
According to the various writings that we have today we can say that the garden had various species of trees from many regions of the planet (palm trees, different fruit trees ...) and multi-colored flowers. This was irrigated by an excellent and innovative irrigation system made up of water pumps and channels that transports water from the Euphrates River to the top of the Gardens where there is a large reservoir that was in charge of all the terraces, thus creating a microclimate, which was very rare in this desert area.
Another theory was that the water was brought by slaves from the river and deposited in the reservoir, although surely the most correct reality is that it was a mixture between slaves helping each other through channels and finally depositing the water in the reservoir.
One of these descriptions of the irrigation system can be found in the book entitled "Seven Wonders of Antiquity" by Philo of Byzantium, a Greek writer and engineer from the 3rd century BC whose works aimed at the study of various mechanical processes. His narration says the following:
"There grow broad-leaved trees and palm trees, flowers of all kinds and colors, and, in a word, everything that is more pleasing to the eye and more pleasant to enjoy. The place is carved as it is done in the lands of work and the care of the new ones are carried out more or less as on the mainland, but the arable is above the heads of those who walk through the columns below. The water pipes, coming from the sources that are next to high, to the right, some run straight and on slopes, others are driven upwards in a spiral, forced to spiral up by ingenious machines, plant roots and keep the soil moist, so naturally the grass it is always green and the leaves of the trees that sprout from tender branches are covered with dew and move in the wind. The root, never thirsty, absorbs the love of the waters that flow everywhere and, wandering underground in threads that inextricably intertwined, ensures a growth constant lying of the trees. It is an art whim, luxurious and regional and almost entirely forced by the work of growing plants suspended above the heads of the spectators "
And we also have Strabo's writings that says: "The shape of the garden is square and measures four plethra (old unit of measurement equivalent to 30m). It consists of vaulted terraces one on top of the other, resting on cubic pillars. These are hollowed out and filled with soil to allow the planting of large trees. The pillars, vaults and terraces are made of baked brick and asphalt (bitumen from Judea). The ascent to the upper terrace is by stairs and there are water machines and people who are continuously raising water from the Euphrates to the garden "
Leaving all these theories behind, since the year 1990 of our era, a new theory has emerged with solid arguments that the Gardens of Babylon were not located in Babylon, but almost 500 km further north, in the city of Nineveh (capital of the Assyrian Empire) one of the largest cities in the world in its time and rivaled by Babylon (Battle of Nineveh, 612 BC).
These investigations were carried out by Dr. Stephanie Dalley, from the Eastern Institute at Oxford University. The following arguments are those that defend his theory:
The first of all is the study of some reliefs from the Senaquerib palace where you can see a portrait of the gardens as Strabo related it.
Second, she compared the reliefs of the territory of Babylon and Nineveh, noting that the relief of Babylon was flat, making it difficult to supply water to the gardens.
After deciphering an ancient cuneiform text describing the life of Sennacherib, an Assyrian king who lived 100 years before Nebuchadnezzar, concluded that here was "a garden that recreated a mountain landscape. It had terraces, column paths, exotic plants, trees and undulating streams "," an unrivaled palace "," wonder for all peoples ". These gardens were irrigated by channels that brought water from rivers located 80 km away.
This theory is supported by the discovery of remains of aqueducts, which according to Stephanie Dalley look like sections of highway seen from the air. In one of those aqueducts an inscription was also discovered that says: "Sennacherib king of the world ... Over a great distance I had a water course directed around Nineveh"
Another investigation carried out by Stephanie Dalley herself suggests that, after Assyria had sacked and conquered Babylon in 689 BC, the Assyrian capital of Nineveh may well have been considered the "New Babylon", thus constituting later the belief that the Hanging Gardens were, in fact, in Babylon itself. For this reason, the historian concludes that the descriptions made by the ancient historians were made based on visits to Nineveh instead of Babylon.
Also another important source of information were the Greek historians Calistenes, Cleitarchos and Onesicrates who were under the command of Alexander the Great. These historians described the famous gardens but unfortunately these texts were lost. But the good news is that today we do have texts by other historians based on these ancient lost texts. Thanks to these Greek historians we know that Alexander the Great in 331 BC (before the famous battle of Gaugamela where Alexander the Great defeated the Persian Empire) camped near a large aqueduct, therefore this can affirm that the gardens really were in Nineveh .
We also have an important source of information about these aqueducts thanks to satellite images and spy maps of the Iraqi countryside in the 1970s, now declassified. These maps show a 95km aqueduct system stretching from the Zagros Mountains to Nineveh. One of those aqueducts is the Jerwan Aqueduct.
Today archaeological evidence is still being sought to prove the existence of The Gardens of Babylon. The problem is that Nineveh is in Mosul, a dangerous city today due to continuous conflicts. However, researcher Dalley managed to contact local people to film ancient buried ruins that cover a large expanse of vegetation.
Finally the historian concludes: "That the Hanging Gardens were built in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar the Great is a fact learned in school and ... 'verified' in encyclopedias ... To challenge such a universally accepted truth, it might seem the height of arrogance, a revisionism proper to scholars ... But Assyriology is a relatively recent discipline ... Facts that seemed certain become superfluous ".
