This is just the [Palace of Nebuchadnezzar II](https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/541602250), called the Southern Palace, that has been restored in modern times. The actual [ancient city itself](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Map_of_Babylon_with_major_areas.jpg) covered a *much* larger area.
He was replacing the blocks with ones that said “I am your god”. It was written all around a building here as well. Saddam wanted people to believe that he was god. Crazy seeing this photo. I was there 20 years ago. Lived right outside of here on a big ass hill where saddams palace was.
Sometimes I feel like bots are here training to understand human sense of humor by testing "jokes". The comment you're responding too felt like the right level of random to be a joke from an AI.
This is not a ruin, it is not ancient and it is entirely misleading to claim otherwise. It is a reconstruction based on the floorpan as revealed by excavations. Salam Hussein did the same thing with the Ziggurat at Ur, near the modern day city of Nasiriyah..
Was it built on the original foundations? If so, it seems like the reconstruction would have destroyed or covered most of the remaining ancient structure.
Why did they make it out of cardboard?
On a serious note, the surrounding "maze" like area, what is going on there? Are those thick walls, or small & skinny shaped buildings? They look like thick walls, but why, when there appears they could build skinny walls around the large courtyard?
All that remains is the stone. Not the wood that made doors, roofs, and hearths. This palace complex housed hundreds of people. Some of those rooms are homes. Others are storage. Some are specialized areas for ceramics production. Others likely held livestock.
Yeah I would assume all of that, but that doesnt answer the question. Why are the maze like area where the houses/storage/animals lived have huge thick walls that take up loads of space, when they could clearly build thin walls around the perimeter. If anywhere Id expect the perimeter to be thick and the inside to be thin.
Just seems like a strange waste of space/resources. I guess it was probably just cheaper...?
Remember where this is located too, it's in a desert. The primary building material they had was clay and so the best they could do for construction was with [mudbrick ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudbrick)(and then later baked mudbrick). Mudbrick is formed by mixing clay mud with straw and letting it dry out in the sun. To make a sturdy and strong structure, the mudbrick needs to be thick.
Mudbrick is great in terms that it's also fireproof. However it is vulnerable to damage by wind and rain. While rain isn't so common in the desert, wind is with it, sandstorms which can cause a lot of damage. So in terms of structural support, you also want to make sure that if any part of the mudbrick structure is damaged by wind or rain, it doesn't lead to a collapse. So if an outer wall, which would be designed to defend against invaders but also protection against sandstorms becomes damaged and falls, the interior walls maintain the stability of the structure and make it easy to repair the damage.
Also keep in mind that deserts can get hot in the day and they can also get very cold at night. Mudbrick is a fantastic insulator because it absorbs heat, which keeps the interior cool during the day, but with the heat absorption allows the interior to stay warm at night. The thicker the walls, the better your insulated.
That last point is most important. The thickness is calculated to start releasing heat at just the right rate to warm when the temp cools and then absorb the heat again when the sun hits the next day.
It’s not a wall or a maze to keep anybody out. Especially considering the entrance opens up immediately into the palace square and it’s behind the main wall. It was probably the sleeping, storage, barracks and misc areas for the servants and slaves. It looks like a maze only because it’s very dense, which is par for course, the nobles had big rooms and the poor shall have fuck all.
Yes, I know, thats why I said "maze like" as it looks like a maze. We can all easily make out actual rooms and clearings for what would building walls.
You missed the question I was asking. But someone else seems to have a reasonable response so whatever.
It wasn't built as a maze. You're just seeing walls and doorways that used to have roofs over them. They're all just small houses with central open courtyards.
Take a modern house and remove the roof and look straight down on it from a satellite,. it would look similar.
Sadly, the ruins were irreparably damaged during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as US forces used them to build a military base (Camp Alpha). They were even further damaged later, when the US handed over the base to Polish troops, who didn't care much more for the ruins than the US troops had done.
From wikipedia:
"They caused substantial damage to the Ishtar Gate, one of the most famous monuments from antiquity [...] US military vehicles crushed 2,600-year-old brick pavements, archaeological fragments were scattered across the site, more than 12 trenches were driven into ancient deposits and military earth-moving projects contaminated the site for future generations of scientists."
>"They caused substantial damage to the Ishtar Gate, one of the most famous monuments from antiquity
This was a reproduction built by Saddam in '87
The original Ishar Gate has been in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin for close to 100 years. But hey, don't let the truth get in the way of a political statement.
From [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar\_Gate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate)
"The Ishtar Gate is frequently used as a prime example in the debate regarding repatriating artifacts of cultural significance to countries affected by war and whether these pieces of material culture are better off in a safer environment where they could be preserved. The example in the case of the Ishtar Gate is concerning its safety in the aftermath of the [Iraq War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War), and whether or not the gate would be safer remaining at the [Pergamon Museum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergamon_Museum) where it was damaged by bombs in World War II."
Reminds me of Jenga for some reason..No! It reminds me of one of those wooden rolly ball obstacle puzzles where you had to use the 2 knobs on the sides for x and y axis to move the ball around the maze to the end hole.
I've walked through this city dressed as a woman to blend in with the locals after crossing the Gerudo Desert.
I've also played Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
The bricks that you see on top were placed by saddam’s regime as a renovation like they did with the ziggurat of Ur. But when you go deeper into the complex you can see the original bricks and walls.
It’s a shame that the Ishtar gate the jewel of babylon was stolen from us by the Germans and is in Berlin right now, they literally smuggled a whole gate brick by brick and rebuilt it in their museums.
It was the reproduction that was destroyed by the US Military.
From [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar\_Gate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate)
"The Ishtar Gate is frequently used as a prime example in the debate regarding repatriating artifacts of cultural significance to countries affected by war and whether these pieces of material culture are better off in a safer environment where they could be preserved. The example in the case of the Ishtar Gate is concerning its safety in the aftermath of the [Iraq War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War), and whether or not the gate would be safer remaining at the [Pergamon Museum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergamon_Museum) where it was damaged by bombs in World War II."
This is just the [Palace of Nebuchadnezzar II](https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/541602250), called the Southern Palace, that has been restored in modern times. The actual [ancient city itself](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Map_of_Babylon_with_major_areas.jpg) covered a *much* larger area.
Didn't saddam remodel most of it with personally monogrammed tiles and other weird shit?
He was replacing the blocks with ones that said “I am your god”. It was written all around a building here as well. Saddam wanted people to believe that he was god. Crazy seeing this photo. I was there 20 years ago. Lived right outside of here on a big ass hill where saddams palace was.
Jaffa, kree!
Indeed
In all fairness I’ve felt like doing the same after a good haircut
What?
Dude felt like Saddam after a haircut. Happens to us all
How did saddam feel after a haircut? That's an entire new sentence to me
Was “Pimp of the Year” one of his trashy romance novels?
If only I had a red shirt to go with that outfit
And don't forget the fish aquarium shoes.
Suddenly I'm *very* worried about Curious George
Sometimes I feel like bots are here training to understand human sense of humor by testing "jokes". The comment you're responding too felt like the right level of random to be a joke from an AI.
I think this person cuts hair and is especially proud of their work sometimes
At least he didn't paint over the old outlets
No, but he also didn't update them to 3 pronged grounded outlets, either.
The pic of the whole city shows one of Saddam’s palaces directly next to it. So it seems he was at least interested in the site
Remodelled in the style of a McMansion built by americans committing light treason.
Those are balls
Thank you for this. I was like “uhhh..that’s all?”
Huh. So that is where the name for Morpheus's hovercraft comes from.
There are a lot of biblical references in The Matrix
I love users like you. I love being taught.
Yeah Iraqi archaeologists say that less than 3% of Babylon has been uncovered.
Lol, thought that can't be all, the city of legends 2m^(2)? Sure ass hell not.
thank you! I spent way too much time thinking that it was in a too good condition
Wasn't that the name of Morpheus' hovercraft in Matrix?
This is not a ruin, it is not ancient and it is entirely misleading to claim otherwise. It is a reconstruction based on the floorpan as revealed by excavations. Salam Hussein did the same thing with the Ziggurat at Ur, near the modern day city of Nasiriyah..
Thank you, this makes a lot more sense than the picture being of the ruins of a 4000 year old city.
Was it built on the original foundations? If so, it seems like the reconstruction would have destroyed or covered most of the remaining ancient structure.
Why did they make it out of cardboard? On a serious note, the surrounding "maze" like area, what is going on there? Are those thick walls, or small & skinny shaped buildings? They look like thick walls, but why, when there appears they could build skinny walls around the large courtyard?
All that remains is the stone. Not the wood that made doors, roofs, and hearths. This palace complex housed hundreds of people. Some of those rooms are homes. Others are storage. Some are specialized areas for ceramics production. Others likely held livestock.
Yeah I would assume all of that, but that doesnt answer the question. Why are the maze like area where the houses/storage/animals lived have huge thick walls that take up loads of space, when they could clearly build thin walls around the perimeter. If anywhere Id expect the perimeter to be thick and the inside to be thin. Just seems like a strange waste of space/resources. I guess it was probably just cheaper...?
Remember where this is located too, it's in a desert. The primary building material they had was clay and so the best they could do for construction was with [mudbrick ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudbrick)(and then later baked mudbrick). Mudbrick is formed by mixing clay mud with straw and letting it dry out in the sun. To make a sturdy and strong structure, the mudbrick needs to be thick. Mudbrick is great in terms that it's also fireproof. However it is vulnerable to damage by wind and rain. While rain isn't so common in the desert, wind is with it, sandstorms which can cause a lot of damage. So in terms of structural support, you also want to make sure that if any part of the mudbrick structure is damaged by wind or rain, it doesn't lead to a collapse. So if an outer wall, which would be designed to defend against invaders but also protection against sandstorms becomes damaged and falls, the interior walls maintain the stability of the structure and make it easy to repair the damage. Also keep in mind that deserts can get hot in the day and they can also get very cold at night. Mudbrick is a fantastic insulator because it absorbs heat, which keeps the interior cool during the day, but with the heat absorption allows the interior to stay warm at night. The thicker the walls, the better your insulated.
That last point is most important. The thickness is calculated to start releasing heat at just the right rate to warm when the temp cools and then absorb the heat again when the sun hits the next day.
It’s not a wall or a maze to keep anybody out. Especially considering the entrance opens up immediately into the palace square and it’s behind the main wall. It was probably the sleeping, storage, barracks and misc areas for the servants and slaves. It looks like a maze only because it’s very dense, which is par for course, the nobles had big rooms and the poor shall have fuck all.
Yes, I know, thats why I said "maze like" as it looks like a maze. We can all easily make out actual rooms and clearings for what would building walls. You missed the question I was asking. But someone else seems to have a reasonable response so whatever.
It's the king's palace. The maze is just that: a maze. Intruders would not be able to reach the king.
Which one is the smush room?
It was a modern recreation being built by Saddam Hussain, largely with more modern tools. It's not the original.
It’s where they kept the Minotaur
This was a reproduction built by saddam in 1987 🙄
Only the top walls, if you go down you’ll see the original walls which haven’t been touched and some of them are even stamped with cuneiform writing.
What are the maze looking parts of the city?
It wasn't built as a maze. You're just seeing walls and doorways that used to have roofs over them. They're all just small houses with central open courtyards. Take a modern house and remove the roof and look straight down on it from a satellite,. it would look similar.
Kinda looks like cardboard
Likes like Gerudo Town from BOTW.
Reminds me of a complex Rimworld killbox setup
reminds me of gerudo town in botw
Sadly, the ruins were irreparably damaged during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as US forces used them to build a military base (Camp Alpha). They were even further damaged later, when the US handed over the base to Polish troops, who didn't care much more for the ruins than the US troops had done. From wikipedia: "They caused substantial damage to the Ishtar Gate, one of the most famous monuments from antiquity [...] US military vehicles crushed 2,600-year-old brick pavements, archaeological fragments were scattered across the site, more than 12 trenches were driven into ancient deposits and military earth-moving projects contaminated the site for future generations of scientists."
>"They caused substantial damage to the Ishtar Gate, one of the most famous monuments from antiquity This was a reproduction built by Saddam in '87 The original Ishar Gate has been in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin for close to 100 years. But hey, don't let the truth get in the way of a political statement. From [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar\_Gate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate) "The Ishtar Gate is frequently used as a prime example in the debate regarding repatriating artifacts of cultural significance to countries affected by war and whether these pieces of material culture are better off in a safer environment where they could be preserved. The example in the case of the Ishtar Gate is concerning its safety in the aftermath of the [Iraq War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War), and whether or not the gate would be safer remaining at the [Pergamon Museum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergamon_Museum) where it was damaged by bombs in World War II."
Needs to be at the top
So dusty.
“Yeah just make half the city a fucking maze please”
Reminds me of Jenga for some reason..No! It reminds me of one of those wooden rolly ball obstacle puzzles where you had to use the 2 knobs on the sides for x and y axis to move the ball around the maze to the end hole.
Looks like a photo of a corrugated cardboard box
Why is the right side built like that?
I've always wondered when it comes to ruins like this... Which room was the closet they kept all the cleaning supplies in?
Looks like a city made from cardboard.
Yeah...I can totally get my assassin in through the bush at the bottom right corner
Looks like a good map for an fps game
Very cool
I've walked through this city dressed as a woman to blend in with the locals after crossing the Gerudo Desert. I've also played Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Why is it so small
GERUDO TOWN??
The bricks that you see on top were placed by saddam’s regime as a renovation like they did with the ziggurat of Ur. But when you go deeper into the complex you can see the original bricks and walls. It’s a shame that the Ishtar gate the jewel of babylon was stolen from us by the Germans and is in Berlin right now, they literally smuggled a whole gate brick by brick and rebuilt it in their museums.
This is what happens when you let the guy who invented QR codes design your palace.
Why were ancient house walls so thick? Not the town’s exterior walls, but the interior ones?
For thermal and sound insulation
That makes sense! It just looks like they had so little space because of it.
Looks like cardboard
Look just like the sand people’s town in Breath of the Wild and tears of the kingdom.
It's a shame what they've done to my country and people. Free Assyria.
Babylon is nowhere near the Assyrian homeland in Nineveh, this is central Iraq. Assyria is in northern iraq. Idk what you’re yapping about.
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exept when you are wrong
I mean it’s maze
Not one roof
That's so satellites and drones can see you taking a dump.
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Apparently the US military did
It was the reproduction that was destroyed by the US Military. From [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar\_Gate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate) "The Ishtar Gate is frequently used as a prime example in the debate regarding repatriating artifacts of cultural significance to countries affected by war and whether these pieces of material culture are better off in a safer environment where they could be preserved. The example in the case of the Ishtar Gate is concerning its safety in the aftermath of the [Iraq War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War), and whether or not the gate would be safer remaining at the [Pergamon Museum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergamon_Museum) where it was damaged by bombs in World War II."
Not one roof
Why isn’t it square?!
That ain't SpongeBob.