Your tour guide clears his throat... First of all, hello! And welcome to Babylon!   About a thousand years after the ancient Sumerians settled in the land between two rivers, two new civilizations arose. One was the warrior civilization of the Assyrians in northern Mesopotamia. The other was the ancient civilization of Babylonia. Babylonia was located in southern Mesopotamia, near the Persian Gulf.  The ancient Sumerians worshipped Marduk. To them, he was an important god. But, to the ancient Babylonians, Marduk was the most important god of all. When King Hammurabi declared Babylon to be the capital of Babylonia, he built the city of Babylon in Marduk's honor.  3500 years ago, Babylon was an impressive place. It was a massive walled city, with a network of canals and vivid green crops. Even from a distance, visitors could see the top of the 300-foot high ziggurat long before they reached the huge city gates. One of the most impressive sites was Procession Avenue, the street that led into the city. Huge brick animals were positioned along both sides of the avenue. The avenue passed under the Ishtar Gates, the elaborate gate to the walled city. The gates were designed with dragons and bulls in honor of the god Marduk. Once inside the walls that protected the ancient city of Babylon, visitors and traders found many wondrous things to buy, like fresh fruits and vegetables, baked breads and cheese, warm coats, gold jewelry, and date wine. Inside the wall, life teemed.  There was no suburban or country living in ancient Babylon. The people had homes inside the walls of the city. Homes were comfortable. Even the very poor, who lived in tiny townhouses, typically had three levels of living space.  Once you reached your home, it was spacious and comfortable. But sometimes, it was hard to get home. Inside the wall, the streets were narrow and unpaved.  Streets or alleys provided access to everyone's front door. People threw their trash out their front door. Now and then, the city covered the streets with a new layer of clay. This buried the trash, but made the level of the street higher. To get inside their homes,  people had to build steps down to their front door, or fill in the space between the new street and punch in a new door.   How Marduk Became King of ALL the Gods Babylonian - The Big Myth, Creation Story (Narrated, told in story form) Hanging Gardens of Babylon Hammurabi's Code Free presentations in PowerPoint format Babylon The Story of Aplum and the Extra Month Astronomers of Babylon  Read Tablets of the Past Nebuchadnezzar (Ishtar Gate, Hanging Gardens)  Plumbing Babylonian Style Babylonians, Hittites, others  To learn more about Ancient Mesopotamia, click on Gilgamesh