Iraq rebuilds splendour of Babylon

Press, 22 October 1986, Page 20

Iraq rebuilds splendour of Babylon

By

Subhy Haddad

of Reuters in Babylon

White • dust swirls from salt flats by the Euphrates River as Iraqi archeologists and foreign labourers toil in scorching heat to restore Babylon’s crumbling ruins to their lost splendour. In temperatures soaring to 55deg, workers from China, South Korea, Egypt and Sudan strengthen decayed foundations and begin to rebuild the city which flourished for 15 centuries. For Iraqi’s leader, Saddam Hussein, reconstructing King Nebuchadnezzar’s once-mighty capital is more than a project to attract tourists — the aim is also

to inspire his people in the costly and gruelling war with Iran, now in its seventh year. “The president has signed an open cheque to reconstruct the ancient city and revive the marvellous shape it had before the Persian aggression which destroyed it more than 20 centuries ago,” the General of Babylon, Arif Gita Suheil, said.

He would not estimate the rest of the project, but said the Government had spent an initial SUS27M in the last year on a

huge “tourist city” rising near the site, 90km south of Baghdad. Mr Suheil said hotels, restaurants, recreation centres, playgrounds, theatres and cinemas — many designed to echo ancient Babylonian architecture — would cluster in “the biggest tourist city in the Middle East.” The rebuilding of Babylon is based on ancient Sumerian and Babylonian inscriptions and drawings. The main hotel in the tourist city will resemble the ziggurat, a temple housed in a giant terraced pyramid, in the legendary Hanging Gardens — one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The gardens were a series of roof gardens laid out in terraces irrigated by water pumped from the Euphrates. Although they are mentioned in the Bible and by classical authors, no certain traces of them have ever been found. Their creation has been attributed to Nebuchadnezzar who is said to have had them con-

structed as a gift for his Median wife, Amytis, because she missed the mountains and greenery of home.

Nebuchadnezzar ruled an empire which covered Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) and much of the Fertile Crescent. He spent 43 years rebuilding Babylon, but his reign ended when the Persians captured the city in 539-5388 C. Alexander the Great died here in 3228 C, possibly of malaria — and his dream of turning Babylon into the capital of a world empire living at peace died with him. The city fell to ruin, and the fine clay bricks baked by Nebuchadnezzar’s Jewish slave workers were carried off to make new buildings. Now, only scattered piles of earth and fragments of patterned bricks lie amid the foundations and lower walls excavated J>y

German archeologists early this century. Corrosive salts and a high water table had threatened to destroy even these remains, but officials said the Iraqi Government had done much to dry them out. Iraqi archeologists are using original bricks and specially made modern ones to restore buildings like the 90m high ziggurat, dedicated to Babylon’s chief deity, Marduk. Alexander’s Greek theatre and two temples have already been restored. Mr Suheil said that most of the reconstruction work would be completed by the middle of next year. Plans include rehabilitating Nebuchadnezzar’s coronation

hall and rebuilding his brick-and-bitumen processional way — E-Ibur-Shabu — The foe shall not pass).” This leads to the great Ishtar gate, named after the Babylonian; and Assyrian goddess of beauty and love, and decorated with a,' succession of strange carved animals. The head of Babylon’s archeology department, Wahby AbdulRazzaq Rashid, reads the inscrip-, tion carved on an ancient brick. “I, Nebuchadnezzar, built this building to be close to the goddess Ishtar, who might benefit me in the next world.” His palace lies in dust and his capital, a by-word for luxury and decadence in the ancient world, still awaits the tourists expected to admire its modern replica.