Ishtar Gate and Processional Way (reconstruction), Babylon, c. 575 B.C.E.

Reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way, Babylon, c. 575 B.C.E., glazed mud brick (Pergamon Museum, Berlin)

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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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