The name | The city of Babylon

Historical resources suggest that Babylon was at first a small town at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. The town flourished and became a city state during the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty around 2000 years BC. Babylon, along with Assyria to the north, was one of the two nations that evolved after the collapse of the Akkadian Empire.

The story is that the city was built on the banks of the Euphrates, divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Babylon spent long periods under subsequent Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. The city of Babylon again became the seat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 612 to 539 BC which was founded by Chaldeans and whose last king was an Assyrian. Later Babylon came under the rules of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid empires. It was dissolved as a province after the Arab Islamic conquest of the 7th century AD.

The remains are found in present day Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad. In literature it is not decided whether the Tower of Babel, where God confounded humanity into speaking all kinds of languages, was located in the city of Babylon. All that remains of the original ancient city of Babylon is mounds of broken mud-brick buildings and debris. However, its mythical name lives on.