The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World give historians insight into the complexity and beauty of such architectural masterpieces built by ancient peoples. An exception to these Ancient Wonders is The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, due to it being the only ancient wonder in which we do not have a definitive location established. Built around 600BC, there is significant debate over the location, or existence of such gardens. Such engineering feat which held the ability to move kilo-litres of water vertically to hundreds of trees should have left behind strong archaeological evidence, but none has such been found. In this essay I will explore the four main theories; that they were built by King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, they were built by Queen Semiramis in Babylon, they were built by King Sennacherib in Nineveh, or they were in fact completely mythological and did not exist at all. For each theory I will provide and analyse evidence, both archaeological and written, to prove or disprove each, while finally stating the evidently strongest theory and provide my own beliefs.
Firstly, in many ancient texts there is a description of the appearance of the Hanging Gardens, such appearance must first be understood before finding the location. In an ancient text, History of the Persians, written by Ctesias of Cnidus around 400BC, the gardens are said to be an enclosure that was square in shape. Ctesias provides measurements of the gardens, stating that the highest terrace stood at roughly 25 metres tall while the entire structure was 120 metres in length. The structure is said to be made of baked bricks, which on top sat soil with was planted with trees. Ctesias further details machinery which supplied water to the garden. The descriptions given by Ctesias match those given by Clitarchus in his text, History of Alexander, whereby he describes the gardens as being 24 metres tall with foundations of its corners sunk ten metres into the ground. It again says the placement of trees upon the hanging gardens, although water is said to have sat on the top of the gardens and provided irrigation from there. Ctesias’ text was written around 400BC and can be considered as an eye-witness account for the viewing of the Hanging Gardens, although it is not his original writings and rather is the writings completed by Diodorus, whereby the text on the gardens was copied in detail from Ctesias. Clitarchus’ text was written from 310-301BC and writes of the gardens in a confused sense with contaminated details, and therefore can be considered unreliable. One can concluded that the existence of the gardens is probable, despite the subjective and unreliable manner of ancient texts. Although, from such texts, measurements and materials in which the gardens have been made from, can be considered and can be further applied to establish the creator and location of the gardens.
For a substantial amount of time it was suspected that the creator of the Hanging Gardens was in fact King Nebuchadnezzar who was the ruling king of Babylon from 605-562BC. He is considered one of the greatest kings of Babylonian history, due to the fact that he created a wealthy and stable condition within Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was considered a cruel tyrant, who gloated about his building achievements, which are supported by many bricks surviving in Babylon having Nebuchadnezzar’s name stamped into them. One of his various building achievements could have possible been the building of the Hanging Gardens. Nebuchadnezzar’s wife Amytis was from the Kingdom of Media, which was a mountainous landscape. Due to her moving to Babylon, which is a desert landscape, she became homesick and longed to see the mountainous landscape and vegetation of her native land, so Nebuchadnezzar created the gardens. Although, all other building activities completed by Nebuchadnezzar are well documented in written Babylonian record, but there is no mention of any Hanging Gardens within Babylon. However, within the Bible it alludes to the fact that Nebuchadnezzar gloated within his previous buildings, but with the construction of the gardens he humbled himself and did not boast about this mass building achievement. As he was presented in a positive light in the Bible, in modern Western culture he became seen as the true builder. Although, when one considers ancient writings, it can be found that four texts contradict that Nebuchadnezzar built the gardens, with two attributing the gardens to Semiramis and two others attributing the gardens to be built by Nebuchadnezzar within another distant city from Babylon. The latter of those can be proven, as there is record of gardens being built along the coastal city of Teredon. One can conclude that Nebuchadnezzar did have a strong building presence within Babylon, but contrary to long held beliefs it is unlikely that he built anything like the Hanging Gardens within Babylon.
Unlike Nebuchadnezzar’s strong ties to God and Christianity, Queen Semiramis is highly dismissed within the bible. Queen Semiramis was the wife to King Ninus, who was the King of Assyria. She was believed to be born from the Syrian goddess Derceto and a young Syrian man, which accounts her to be somewhat mythical. She had a child with her husband and after her husband died she became regent to the child and ruled over ancient Assyria from 811BC to 808BC. It was previously believed that due to her connections to being somewhat mythical she was always disregarded or never really existed, but it was only in 1910 the Scottish minister Alexander Hislop claimed that she was a real person. Due to her description being "god-like", she became considered as a false idol within the Old Testament. This created her to be mistrusted and seemed to lack in credibility. But, similar to Nebuchadnezzar, Semiramis was involved in a variety of building projects within the city of Babylon. One of the most important parts of the writings by Ctesias and Clitarchus is that they both directly reference the pronoun of 'she', which links the building of the gardens to Semiramis. Ctesias' text also states that she was ambitious and wished to become more renowned than her husband, so he collected architects and craftsmen to build a city and Babylonia. She walled the city and redirected the Euphrates into a cistern and made an underground canal. Archaeological evidence found by the German archaeologist, Robert Koldeway, had previously suggested that the gardens were built in Babylon and the site had been found, but more recently it has been believed that the basement area in which Koldeway discovered is rather a building used for storage and administrative functions. Due, to the fact that the site discovered is located too far from the river and according to texts the location of the gardens is closer to the river than expected. The exact location would now be situated underneath the river which has moved from where it once sat nearly 3000 years ago. From this we can conclude, that Semiramis could be considered a likely builder of the Hanging Gardens, although as she ruled around 800BC she may be too old for the existence of the Hanging Gardens, as they would have had to exist for 400 years before anyone would have encountered an eye-witness account. Or from this we can see that the eye-witness accounts can be considered false or subjective to display a belief, due to the destruction of Babylon in 689BC. Although, if we consider the writings by Ctesias to be true it reflects the archaeological evidence found by Robert Koldeway, they favour the attribution of the building of the Hanging Gardens to Semiramis.
Recently, there has been a new discovery of the location and builder of the gardens, and unlike both Nebuchadnezzar and Semiramis, King Sennacherib would have most likely built the gardens in Nineveh. Nineveh, located near modern day Mosul in Iraq, and was settled as early as 6000BC, but King Sennacherib, who ruled over the Assyrian empire, brought the city to a larger fame in his rule from 704-681BC. Before he came to rule his father and grandfather had both fought with Babylon and in 689BC he completely destroyed Babylon, including that of temples and images of gods. Sennacherib was prominently known for his magnificent building projects, one of which was a palace with 18 rooms, in which he called "the palace without rival". He also put in place an 130km canal system, which supplied a steady amount of water not just for human consumption but also to keep public parks and gardens irrigated. Many carvings show various parks, but one of which is held in the British Museum showcases pillared walkways with various trees growing from each terrace. From Sennacherib’s Prism he references this such building saying, "I planted a great park beside the palace, like that of the Amanus Mountain, with all kinds of herbs and fruit trees which came from the mountains and from Babylonia." There is also evidence of a watering system used by Sennacherib to water such gardens, as he describes a date palm which features a screw-like patterning of bark, which matches the shape of an Archimedes screw, which was used to raise water, which also means that Sennacherib invented this screw 400 years before it was traditionally believed to be invented. Oxford scholar Stephanie Dalley presents the fact that it was possible that Nineveh was referred to as "New Babylon", which may have sparked the confusion with the naming of the Hanging Gardens being given the ownership of Babylon. To conclude, it is highly possible that the Hanging Gardens existed in Nineveh and were built by Sennacherib. His large amount of building programs and canal system provide the fact that he was experienced in the way of architecture and landscaping. The mentioning of the Archimedes screw also cements this theory, providing that he understood the method of moving water vertically. Although such evidence exists, there is no archaeological evidence found at the site in Nineveh, which may be due to much of it being threatened by war, and completely destroyed in such events. Also, the ancient historical writings that exist do not coincide with the gardens being built in Nineveh, although most of the texts, as they are not the original documents but rather copies written by other writers. Overall, it is highly probable that Sennacherib was the builder of the Hanging Gardens, although with this being only a recent realisation archaeological information may be lacking, and further investigating at the site may provide further answers.
In conclusion, each builder and location is supported by various evidence, but each is lacking in archaeological evidence, which may lead some people to believe that the Hanging Gardens did not exist, and they were rather purely mythological due to the lack in archaeological evidence. From my own research I can conclude that there is a high probability that they Hanging Gardens did in fact exist, due to the large amount of ancient texts mentioning their existence. Although, their creator is the rather harder to define, I can conclude, that I believe that the creator of the Hanging Gardens was King Sennacherib. The new found evidence proves that he created a building like the found descriptions of the Hanging Gardens, one that showcased magnificent engineering capabilities he showcases within his previous buildings projects found in Nineveh. Although, I believe that more archaeological evidence needs to be found before any confirmation can be made, although due to the current state of terrorism in Mosul I believe that it may be a significant amount of years before we uncover the true owner and location of the Hanging Gardens.