The Hanging Gardens of… where?

I have just watched a fascinating TV programme on Channel about an Oxford archaeologist who went in search of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the only one of the seven wonders of the world without a known location, and which some have thought to be just a myth.

The programme follows Dr Stephanie Dalley,a renowned Assyriologist who  is able to read and interpret cuneiform, the ancient Assyrian writing, and from that she came to the conclusion that it was not Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king, but Sennacherib the Assyrian king who achieved an amazing feat of engineering. he was responsible for the construction of the magnificent gardens at his palace in Nineveh;  she suggests that a huge canal, a mighty construction, was built to bring water for  90K to his palace, and this included a massive aqueduct across a river valley. Once the water reached the garden area, it was transported up to feed the trees and plants on the terraces of the garden using an Archimedes screw pump, several centuries before Archimedes gave his name to the device.

The programme was most interesting as it followed Dr Dalley from the British Museum and the various artefacts there with cuneiform upon them, to some of the most dangerous places in the Middle East, where she sent two security men to Mosul which is near the ruins of Nineveh, the ancient Assyrian capital.

I’m excited to find that Dr Dalley has published not a few books… I think a couple might goon my Christmas list!

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/finding-babylons-hanging-garden

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/archaeology/10470443/Pictured-the-real-site-of-the-Hanging-Gardens-of-Babylon.html

http://www.unmuseum.org/hangg.htm