Babylon — The Gate of the Gods
The city that gave the world written law, the hanging gardens, and the mathematics of the heavens — sixty minutes to the hour, three hundred and sixty degrees to the circle.
Origin
On the banks of the Euphrates rose Babylon, the great city of Mesopotamia and the heart of two mighty empires — the Old Babylonian Empire of Hammurabi and the Neo-Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar II. Here humanity codified its first great laws, raised one of the Seven Wonders, and read the future in the stars, laying down a mathematics of the heavens we still use today.
The Heroes
- Hammurabi — the king whose code carved one of history's earliest written laws into stone.
- Nebuchadnezzar II — builder of the Hanging Gardens and the Ishtar Gate.
- The Chaldean astronomers — who mapped the planets and named the zodiac.
Symbols of the Lineage
The blue-glazed Ishtar Gate with its lions, bulls, and dragons. The Code of Hammurabi on its black stele. The ziggurat — the tower that reached toward heaven. The lion of Babylon and the eight-pointed star of Ishtar.
Beliefs & Worldview
Babylon honored the great gods of Mesopotamia — Marduk, its divine champion; Ishtar, goddess of love and war; Shamash of the sun and justice; Sin of the moon. The Enuma Elish told how Marduk shaped the world, and the priest-astronomers watched the skies for the will of the gods, certain that heaven and earth were bound as one.
Timeline — Major Events
- c. 1792 BCE — Hammurabi takes the throne and issues his code of law.
- 605–562 BCE — Nebuchadnezzar II raises Babylon to its golden age.
- c. 600 BCE — The Hanging Gardens and the Ishtar Gate.
- 587 BCE — The conquest of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile.
- 539 BCE — Cyrus of Persia takes the city.
Cultural Artifacts
The Code of Hammurabi, now in the Louvre. The reconstructed Ishtar Gate, now in Berlin. The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Enuma Elish on their clay tablets, and the astronomical diaries that tracked the planets for centuries.
The Living Lineage
Babylon shaped the world you live in: the sixty-minute hour, the three-hundred-and-sixty-degree circle, the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the very idea of written law all trace to its scribes. Its stories echo through the Bible itself. To claim Babylonian heritage is to claim the city that gave the world law and the stars.
Recommended Reading
The Code of Hammurabi; the Epic of Gilgamesh; the Enuma Elish.
The Gate of the Gods
The city that gave the world law and the heavens deserves an heirloom worthy of it. Each piece in the Babylonian Collection renders the Ishtar Gate, the lion of Babylon, and the star of Ishtar in black and gold — the glory of Babylon, fixed for the wall. Explore the collection →