Asia

[Visited: January 2022]

What better way to start the new year than with a new travel companion and new travel adventures? After reading my message on social media about my little adventure at a checkpoint the day before, Russian Anna (on her way to fly to Baghdad) contacted me and we soon decided to team up and travel from Baghdad to Basra independently. It is still dark when she calls me in my room, and quite soon, we head to a taxi stand and charter a vehicle to get us to Babylon. The drive is pretty straightforward, and in the end, we guide the driver to the entrance of the legendary city. At a checkpoint, a gentleman asks us to proceed, and we meet up with him after a few hundred metres. We are allowed to leave or bags in Ishtar Gate, and a local guide soon presents himself to us. He will take us around Babylon, for centuries in antiquity the largest city of the world.
He wants to walk straight into the ruined city, but I first want to have a better look at Ishtar Gate - built in honour of the goddess of love and war. It has a bright blue colour, with representations of white bulls and yellow mušḫuššu dragons on all sides. The guide seems a little embarrassed, and explains that the original Ishtar Gate was disassembled during the First World War, smuggled out of the country, taken to Germany on ships, and reassembled after 1918 in the Pergamom Museum in Berlin. The original gate was much bigger than the one through which we enter Babylon. We see a map of the original city, where the guide explains that it is not clear where the famed Hanging Gardens of Babylon (one of the Seven Wonders of the World of Antiquity) were located. The Tower of Babel does not exist anymore. We then walk towards the palace of Nebuchadnezzar and other Babylonian kings. Seeing the reconstructed palace is a bit of a shock: it has been built on top of the ruins, and looks too polished to be true. We learn that by building the palace on top of the ruins, these are protected against the elements. It actually was a prestige project of Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, during the war against Iran. The splendours of the ancient kingdom of Iraq had to be restored, and part of its glory would then automatically shine on Saddam himself, too.
The guide takes us through the palace, explains how aisles were constructed such that any invasion army would not be able to rush in, enabling defenders to take attackers out. He takes us to a hall where the throne of Nebuchadnezzar once stood, and then points to the spot where Alexander the Great, who conquered Babylon in 331BCE, drew his last breath. I wonder how he can be so sure. He takes us through the maze of the old city of Babylon, up the city wall, and now we see more ruins which have not (yet) been touched. We also see the palace of Saddam Hussain on top of a hill. The guide tells us how his family always lived in Qawarish, a settlement on top of that same hill, until Saddam razed it, displaced the families, and had his monstrous palace built. It comes as a big surprise when the guide shows deep respect for Saddam, pointing out that everything was so much cheaper during his rule - and forgiving him to have destroyed the village his ancestors called home. He shows us the Lion of Babylon, a solid statue of a lion trampling a human, apparently to deter attackers. People thought that coins were hidden in the lion's mouth, and tried to smash it - hence the severe destruction of its head. Our guide now takes us to parts of the reconstructed palace that are normally off limits, proudly showing the key that opens the locks to access those sections. One of them has a multitude of bulls and mušḫuššu dragons, without colours, on the reconstructed walls. Again, these conflicting emotions of being in one of the most legendary cities of the world, and seeing it reconstructed in a weird way. We are invited to lunch by Iraqis, but first head to the palace of Saddam Hussain for a different view of the ruins of this fascinating city that still leaves so much to the imagination.

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Babylon (Iraq)

Babylon > Iraq > Asia

[Visited: January 2022]

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