A History of Ancient Babylon
Ancient Babylon, or Babylonia, was once known as a place that held much power, many material goods, and was also a land of cruelty. It was here that the Jews were held as prisoners for seventy years. The city, which was the capital of Babylonia, was located in the region of Mesopotamia. It sat on the Euphrates River, which is approximately fifty miles south of what is known today as Baghdad. Up until the 19th century, the city was considered to be a myth due to the huge land mass and the legends of the power and wealth that were held there. It was at that time that ruins from the city were discovered and the world began to know the truth – that Ancient Babylon did in fact at one time exist.
The name “Babylon” means “Gate of the Gods” in Akkadian. It was here that the tower of Babel was built. “Babel” means “confused” and this was fitting seeing as how Babylonia was known for its confusion because the citizens of Babylon were extremely ungodly and the confusion stemmed from this ungodliness. The story of the tower of Babel is one of the best examples of how ungodly the people of Babylonia were. They had set out to build a tower that would reach heaven. God was very angry with the people for being so sinful and foolish to believe that a manmade building could do such a thing. For this, he gave all the citizens working on the tower different languages and perhaps even the different races that we see today all over the world.
The people of Babylonia were enemies with the people of the neighboring region, the Assyrians. The two were in a constant struggle for power and to be the most prosperous region in the world. Those to first live in the city were the Sumerians. It was during this time, at approximately 2300 BC, that Sargon began ruling the people of Babylonia. It’s thought that Sargon may have actually been Nimrod, a descendant of Noah. Then in approximately 2000 BC, Hammurapi took control of Babylonia. He not only expanded the city to include more land mass but he also placed their laws down into written code. This became known as the Code of Hammurapi.
Meanwhile, Assyria was developing in its own right. As it also grew and became more developed, it was eventually a greater city than Babylon and began to wield more power in approximately 1200 BC. Assyria remained the more powerful region for approximately seventy years. Assyria also took control of Babylonia and had it under its leadership during the same time. In 626 BC, Nabopolassar finally took back control of Babylonia from Assyrian rule. In 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II became ruler and it was at this time when the Babylonian Empire was the most powerful and prosperous that it had ever been. Nebuchadnezzar built the city of Babylon into one of the largest and most powerful cities in the entire world.
In 587 BC, the people of Babylon invaded Jerusalem and brought the people living there back to Babylon to hold them captive. Jeremiah, who was a Hebrew prophet, had told the people that they would be able to return to their land of Jerusalem after seventy years. Ezekiel and Daniel, servants of the Lord, were among the prisoners in Babylon and God used them to encourage their people.
Ancient Babylon can still be seen today in almost every aspect of the modern world, especially when people are dealing with religion. Part of every religion today can be traced back to Ancient Babylon.