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580 B.C.:  Babylon is under construction - again!  Each year it seems the king orders a new building project.  But you have to admit, the city has never looked better.  The city walls are stronger than ever.  You enter the city through a magnificent gateway.  It's made of deep blue glazed brick and decorated with pictures of fierce animals.  Inside the walls, work continues on the ziggurat.  The king orders the builders to raise the top of the tower so that it might rival heaven.  The "Hanging Gardens," however, are your favorite new sight.  They're amazing!  There's not much greenery around Babylon, so the king built these roof top gardens.  To keep the gardens lush and green builders set up an irrigation system.  Water pumped from Euphrates River to the gardens that overlook the city.

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Why was there so much construction going on in the city-state of Babylon?  When UR fell to invaders in about 2100 B.C., people started arriving in Mesopotamia.  This is where they would stay for centuries.  They adopted Mesopotamian customs, laws, religion, and art styles.
In 1792 B.C., Hammurabi became king of Babylon, which is located on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Hammurabi was a shrewd, or clever, leader who sought great power.  By 1754 B.C. he controlled all of Mesopotamia, in addition to a  number of neighboring city-states.  His empire was known as Babylonia.  Look at the map below to see how big the empire was.

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Hammurabi sent officials throughout the empire to carry out his orders and to collect taxes. People had to pay taxes on their property. The money was used to support Hammurabi's large army and also to pay for the construction projects that you read about.

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* The code helps shows us what the Babylonians were concerned with most.

- They thought the strong should not control the weak.

- They wanted widows and children protected.

* Some​ of the laws were quite harsh.  Sometimes the wrongdoer would have to pay a fine.  The code called for different punishments based on the social class of the lawbreaker and the social class of the victim of the crime.

* In the code, punishments often fit the crime by demanding and "eye for an eye" or a "tooth for a tooth".

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STOP WHEN IT GETS TO THE PART ON ROME

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Hammurabi's Code - Twelve Tables - Flocabulary

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Learn about ancient laws like Hammurabi's Code with Flocabulary's educational rap song and lesson plan.

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While the Babylonian Empire was flourishing, the Assyrians began to gain strength in northern Mesopotamia.  Their land lay in the valley of the Upper Tigris River.

- From 1900 B. C. to 600 B.C., Assyria expanded its territory.
Assyrian culture was greatly influenced by Babylonian culture, but the Assyrians placed a higher value on war and conquest, or defeat, of another group.   The Assyrians were known ​as great and sometimes merciless warriors.  Their heavy, wheeled battering rams quickly reduced a city wall to rubble.  The soldiers then stormed the city, forcing the people to surrender.

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From 688 B.C. to 627 B. C., the Assyrian Empire was at its largest and most powerful under King Ashurbanipal. During his reign, the Assyrians controlled nearly all of the Fertile Crescent. Like other Assyrian kings, Ashurbanipal personally led his armies into battle. However, he also was a very educated man. He could read and write. He built a library at Ninevah, his capital. He collected many Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian writings. His library contained works of literature, as well as writings on history, mathematics, and astronomy. Tablets from Ashurbanipal's library have helped historians learn about the peoples of Mesopotamia.

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Daily life in Babylon did not change much when Hammurabi began to rule.  The Babylonians continued to rely on irrigation for farming and trade.  Their religious beliefs were similar.  Babylonia also had a strict class system, however, they spoke their own version of the Akkadian language.
With Hammurabi ruling, the capital city of Babylon grew.  A small village during Sumerian civilization, Babylon became a center of culture and learning.  Clay tablets tell archaeologists that many advancements were made in mathematics, literature, and law.
​Hammurabi's biggest and best known achievements was a code of laws that he  established.  He had the laws engraved on a towering stone monument.  These laws helped him govern his empire in a new way.

The Code of Hammurabi is a set of laws (282) in which the punishment fits the crime, as well as the social class of the offender and the victim. Some of the laws were based on Sumerian and Akkadian laws. Many of the laws . . . .

- dealt with business practices

- related to property ownership,

- medical practice,

- covered marriage and

- childcare

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After 627 B.C., Babylon again began to expand its influence and wealth.  In 605 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar II was crowned king of Babylon.  He took over much of the former Assyrian Empire and the desert land west of Babylon.  Nebuchadnezzar II ordered massive building projects to make Babylon great and glorious once again.  It had taken a beating during its wars and battles.  He built walls to protect the great temples of Babylon.   He also finished building the great ziggurat.​ Several projects have become legendary.

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Babylon was a wealthy trading city and an important center of learning.  The Babylonians made great advancements in mathematics.  For example, they determined that place value refers to the position of numerals.  Babylon astronomers, scientists who study the stars, moon, and planets, made important advancements.  They were able to accurately predict when eclipses of the sun and moon would occur.  When Nebuchadnezzar II died about 562 B.C., the new Babylonian Empire declined. In 539 B.C. the Persians invaded and conquered Babylon.

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What would cause a civilization/empire to decline and come to an end, or become easy to take over, or conquer?

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The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Not for the Prove It Chart)

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The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Not for the Prove It Chart)

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The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built about 2,500 years ago. The gardens were said to have been built by Nebuchadnezzar II, to make his wife Amytis happy because she didn’t like the Babylonian desert. She was from Persia, which had many plants and fountains.

The gardens were covered with trees, flowers, lawns, plants, fountains, pools, and miniature water falls. Every plant available in the kingdom was planted. Mud brick and stone, were used to build a series of terraces, one on top of the other. The plants couldn’t survive without water, so they had to pump water from the Euphrates River to flow down through channels to the plants.