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Dr. Steven Zucker: We're in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin
and one of the most astonishing objects they have
--well it's not an object
Dr. Beth Harris: It's a gate for a city
--there were eight double gates that formed
part of the walls around the ancient city of Babylon
Dr. Zucker: It's huge
Dr. Harris: It doesn't just impress us
it impressed people--but it was built
--in fact it was called one of the Wonders of the World
Dr. Zucker: So Nebuchadnezzar--of biblical fame
ascended to the throne and proceeded to rebuild
the already ancient city of Babylon
--this is a city that has its roots in the third millenia B.C.
--but it had become a major political center
under King Hammurabi in the 1700s B.C.E.
--the city had remained populated but regained importance in the 6th century
under Nebuchadnezzar II and under his father
--and what we are seeing here is part of the enormous building campaign
that Nebuchadnezzar II had undertaken
Dr. Harris: We may recognize Nebuchadnezzar from the Bible
--from the book of Daniel
--he's the ruler of Babylon who conquers and destroys the temple in Jerusalem
--and whose responsible for the exile of the Jews
Dr. Zucker: Clearly he was very powerful
--he was able to undertake this enormous building campaign
--you know he fortified and strengthened
eleven miles of wall around the city of Babylon
--he reconstructed the great ziggurat in Babylon
which had the Temple of Marduk at its top
and it's probably the source of the story of the Tower of Bable
--he created palaces and he created this extraordinary gate
Dr. Harris: And hanging gardens which were also considered
one of the wonders of the world
--so the city of Babylon had eight double gates
--the one we are looking at is one of those gates
--and actually the smaller of the double gate
--the other one would have been even larger
if that's possible to imagine
Dr. Zucker: In fact so large that the museum can't actually put it on display
even in this very large space
--this gate which would of course would have only been opened
for the friendly--is at the end of a long processional way
--lined with beautiful lions that speak very clearly of pride
--of power--and of Nebuchadnezzar's rule
Dr. Harris: The lions that we see on processional way
represent Ishtar--one of the Babylonians goddesses
--the goddess of war and wisdom and sexuality
Dr. Zucker: They're raised up to eye-level
and they're a little bit smaller than life size
but they are pretty big
Dr. Harris: And they are frightening
--they're mouths are open in these ferocious roars
Dr. Zucker: It's true they are snarling aren't they
Dr. Harris: They are--but the fact that they are placed
in this very regular way--makes them seem
as though they are trained or controlled
by King Nebuchadnezzar himself
Dr. Zucker: It makes us fear not only the lions
but it makes us fear the king
--the image of a lion is beautiful
--this faience of raised to create kind of relief sculpture
--so in addition to the lions--there are two other animals forms
that decorate the gate and they're both meant
to be as ferocious as the lions
--a kind of ancient bull known as an auroch
--these were supposed to be terribly fierce
--and then alternating with the rows of auroch
are a kind of mesopetamian dragon
which is really a composite beast
--the front paws are those of lions
--the head and neck come from a snake or serpent
--the hind legs come from an eagle perhaps
Dr. Beth Harris: And their tails
have a stinger like a scorpion
Dr. Zucker: Those dragons are associated with Marduk
--the patron god of the city
--and Nebuchadnezzar associated himself directly with Marduk
--the aurochs--that is these bulls
--are associated with the god Adad
--a god associated with storms
--with the fertility of the land
--with the harvest
--all of these animals speak to protecting the city
--but also providing for the city
Dr. Harris: They are ferocious animals
--but they're also represented in a very regular way
along the procession and on the tower and archway of the gate
--so that there is symmetry
--a sense of order in the way they are represented
Dr. Zucker: One of the most extraordinary aspects of these towers
--of the gate as a whole--is the color
--this is an arid place where the sun is bright--where is gets really hot
--and you can imagine how brilliant the blues and greens would have been
not in the context of the museum--but in the context of the edge of a desert
--in Mesopotamia there was a real problem
--you know the Egyptians were able to build
their Great Pyramids and other monuments
out of the native stone that surrounded them
--but in Mesopotamia they didn't have that
--this was a river valley--Babylon is on the banks of the Euphrates
--in fact the Euphrates cuts right through the city
--when the Mesopotamians wanted to build
they created buildings out of brick
--created from the clay of the river valley
--the brilliant blue that we see on the surface of the gate is faience
--this is a technique that was known to the ancient Egyptians
and other parts of the ancient world
--and it uses copper to create this brilliant blue
--and this is a beautiful example
Dr. Harris: So the gate is massive--it's frightening--it's decorative
--and it's brilliantly colored
--no wonder Nebuchadnezzar was so proud of it
and wrote an inscription on the side
Dr. Zucker: Let's go read that
--now we're sure where the inscription was originally placed on the wall
--but in this reconstruction it's on the left side of the left tower
--here's an excerpt, "I Nebuchadnezzar laid the foundation of the gates
down to the ground water level--and had them built out of pure blue stone
--upon the walls in the inner room of the gate are bulls and dragons
--and thus I magnificently adorned them with luxurious splendour for all mankind to behold in awe
Dr. Harris: And we are in awe two and a half millenia later
Dr. Zucker: Nebuchadnezzar understood his place in history
and he actually wrote inscriptions in his new buildings
that not only identified them and identified their purpose and him as their patron
--but also asked future rulers to rebuild them for him
Dr. Harris: It's as though he knew that empires come and go
Dr. Zucker: And that he could speak across history
--and in our time--the ruler of Mesopotamia which we now call Iraq
seemed to pay attention
Saddam Hussein actually had begun the rebuilding of parts of Babylonia
--he built his own palace a few hundred meters away from the Ishtar Gate
--and began the reconstruction of parts of the city as well
--that came to a halt of course in the recent military actions against him
--and of course he was ultimately deposed and killed
Dr. Harris: And what it meant to rebuild this legendary city
Dr. Zucker: Saddam Hussein was very much rebuilding it
not for Nebuchadnezzar but for his own political ambition
Dr. Harris: Reclaiming the power of Nebuchadnezzar for himself
Dr. Zucker: That's right and the power of ancient Mesopotamia
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