Where Was the Real Hanging Gardens of Babylon Located?

Ancient historians may have wrongly identified one of the wonders of the world

A 19th-century depiction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Source: Wikimedia.

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, has been lost to the sands of time. Ancient scholars were mesmerized by its beauty.

What if the Hanging Gardens wasn’t in the city of Babylon?

Ancient sources say Nebuchadnezzar II, ruler of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (from 605 to 562 B.C.), constructed the garden. However, Nebuchadnezzar, who left extensive records of his rule, does not mention building a world-class garden.

Don’t you think this is strange? Why would a king who was meticulous in documenting his reign omit such a remarkable engineering feat? What makes the matter murkier is none of the Babylonian texts mention anything about a garden.

Archaeologists tried to solve this mystery of the missing Hanging Gardens of Babylon. To their surprise, they found no evidence of the gardens as described in the literature.

So the garden was a work of poetic imagination, right?

Not quit…