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All such gardens usually had terraces to aid irrigation, high walls to provide shade, trees were clustered together so as to better maintain their vital moisture and withstand scorching winds, and, of course, all were located near an abundant water source. There were also gardens after the supposed date for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, those at Pasargadae in the Zagros Mountains built by Cyrus the Great (d. He describes the terraces as being built on pillars and lined with reeds and bricks. Meanwhile, the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, also writing in the 1st century BCE, notes that the terraces sloped upwards like an ancient theatre and reached a total height of 20 metres (65 ft). He also mentions the presence of stairs to reach the various levels. 24 CE), describes the location of the gardens as by the Euphrates, which ran through ancient Babylon, and a complicated machinery of screws which drew water up from the river to water the gardens. Several other sources describe the gardens as if they were still in existence in the 4th century BCE, but all were written centuries after the reign of Nebuchadnezzar and all were written by writers who almost certainly never visited Babylon and who knew little of either horticulture or engineering. All of these outdoor pleasant places, then, owed their existence to ancient Mesopotamia and, above all, to the magnificent Hanging Gardens of Babylon.ĭiodorus Siculus notes that the terraces of the gardens sloped upwards like an ancient theatre & reached a height of 20 metres. Gardens became such a desired feature that fresco painters, such as those at Pompeii, covered entire walls of villas with scenes which gave the illusion that on entering a room one was also entering a garden.
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Gardens were not just about flowers and plants, either, as architectural, sculptural, and water features were added, and even the views were a consideration for the ancient landscape gardener. From there the notion would spread throughout the ancient Mediterranean so that by Hellenistic times even private individuals, or at least the wealthier ones, were cultivating their own private gardens in their homes. The majority of scholars agree that the idea of cultivating gardens purely for pleasure, as opposed to the production of food, originated in the Fertile Crescent, where they were known as a paradise. The first mention in an ancient source of the gardens is by Berossus of Kos, c.
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The exotic nature of the gardens compared to the more familiar Greek items on the list and the mystery surrounding their location and disappearance have made the Hanging Gardens of Babylon the most captivating of all the Seven Wonders. Archaeology at Babylon itself and ancient Babylonian texts are silent on the matter, but ancient writers describe the gardens as if they were at Nebuchadnezzar's capital and still in existence in Hellenistic times. Still others believe the gardens are merely a figment of the ancient imagination. Some scholars claim the gardens were not in Babylon but actually at Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire, while others stick with the ancient writers and await archaeology to provide positive proof. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, they are the only wonder whose existence is disputed amongst historians. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were the fabled gardens which beautified the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, built by its greatest king Nebuchadnezzar II (r.