Hillah, Iraq.
Babylon…five thousand year old city in the cradle of civilization. Garden city on the banks of the Euphrates. Home of King Hammurabi and his code, where King Nebuchadnezzar built his hanging gardens. Alexander conquered and died here.
(All of the above shamelessly and hastily copied from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon)
Today we got to escort an Italian general to Ancient Babylon. This entry is short on text and long on photos.
Let’s lead off with the vanity shot:
This is our first mission during the day in quite some time. Sunny and 110 degrees today. Now I remember why I like night missions.This photo below is not a line of cars parked on the street.
These cars are lined up for gas at one of probably two or three gas stations in town. I estimate that the line was about two miles long, at least. The line was long enough that even though we were driving at 40 or so miles per hour, I had to dig out my camera, open the lens cover, turn it on, wait to focus, and still had this many cars to photograph.
The mullahs have a tremendous power in their local communities. They all have sort of monuments built to them.
Each town puts a picture of its mullah(s) somewhere in town.Babylon sits on the northern edge of Hillah. The land around Hillah is quite flat. Saddam Hussein built a massive palace on the top of a man made hill. He wanted to demonstrate that he was even mightier than Nebuchadnezzar.
Main entry foyer:
Grand staircase to second floor:
Top of stairs:
The two above photos are dim because the rooms are too large for the flash to be effective.Ceiling in one of the upstairs rooms:
And we were surprised to find this graffiti:
It was from one of the previous dets. If I had thought about it, I would have brought a Kendall County Yacht and Gun Club sticker (if you don’t know what I am talking about).
Looking from the balcony over the river:
From the front balcony of the palace, you can see the remaining ruins of Babylon:
As well as the reconstructed city/palace:
They are right next to each other:
In the distance of the above photo, you can see another hill similar to the one Saddam built his palace on. There is a matching hill out of photo, too. Those two hills were to have palaces built for Saddam’s sons, so they too could be better than Nebuchadnezzar.
Group photo from the top of the palace:
By the way, Marines have this thing against smiling in photos. They refuse to do it.Ishtar Gate is the old gate into Babylon.
The original gate is in a museum in Germany. Iraq is trying to get it back.The ruins are in remarkably good condition, considering they are thousands of years old:
Some of the Babylon has been restored:
There is a legend involving the Tower of Babel. The myth itself is pretty unsavory, but the ending is commemorated with this statue:
This statue is apparently famous in the archaeological world, and is thousands of years old. I vaguely remember it on the cover of my 10th grade world history book, but I am probably mistaken.From the ruins looking up to the new palace:
It was very hot (110 degrees), and we had to run around with full kit and weapons. It was tiring.
The groundskeepers told me this was the only remaining ruin of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon:
I am not sure about this, as I thought there were no ruins left.Overall, Babylon was amazing on many levels. I really enjoyed the visit. The gift shop was closed (yes, there really is one), so I couldn’t buy anyone Hanging Garden Snow Globes or Hammurabi Home Cuneiform Kits. Sorry.I am working on renewing my flight instructor ratings through an online course. I need to get this done because it is a pain to get it renewed after the instructor rating has expired. Should mean some late nights while the internet is stable and fast.