Babylon - The Fall of the Richest City of All Time!

4,000 years ago, there was a powerful, progressive, and incredibly wealthy city. It developed into one of the greatest cities in the world. The streets were paved. Numerous gates led into the walled city that had over 250 towers that were at least 100 meters high. This is where modern writing and mathematics were invented. Ferries, roads, and drawbridges ensured efficient transport. And the mythical hanging gardens were a feat of engineering and were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The city's wealth was unimaginable. The people created impressive works of art out of gold. There was a golden image of Baal, a beautiful table that was supposedly made of 22,000 kilos of pure gold, with a golden lion of man. The majestic royal palace was the largest ever built in world history. Babylon used to exist in what is now modern-day Iraq. Everyone has heard of Babylon, or at least of the tallest tower in the world at that time, known as the Tower of Babel. But how did this incredible rise and dramatic fall of Babylon and the Babylonian Empire come about? Before we get started, be sure to hit that like button and ring the notification bell for more videos. The Birth of Babylon After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, two new empires popped up and began to claim the nearby land. The Babylonians were in the south and the Assyrians were in the north. The Babylonians would be the first group of people to create an empire that would claim the entire country of Mesopotamia. The city-state of Babylon has been in Mesopotamia for years, but things were now beginning to look up for Babylon as it seemed they had claimed the majority of the land for themselves. When the Akkadian Empire began to fall, the Amorites moved in to claim their territory. This all took place sometime around 1792 BC when King Hammurabi was elected ruler. It wouldn't be long after Hammurabi became king that he would want to expand his reach. He loved his job, but he felt as though he should be able to rule over much more than just Babylon. This led him to his desire to conquer other city-states in the area, doing his best to claim control of all the nearby settlements. Within a few short years, he had been able to successfully conquer the entire country of Mesopotamia, including the Assyrians in the north. Because of Hammurabi's unwillingness to back down, he would become one of the most powerful rulers of his time and helped Babylon become the richest and most prosperous city in ancient history. Much of Babylon was located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The city served as a major trading area for people from all over the world. Supplies and goods were abundant, so the city saw a constant flow of money, services and resources. The city was also highly advanced and would be the first to adopt all the new ideas and products that were being invented across the globe. At the time, Babylon was also, by far, the largest city in the world. It's estimated that as many as 200,000 people lived in Babylon at its peak. In the center of the city, the locals had built a large pyramid that they used as a temple. Researchers believe that this pyramid would have been around 100 meters tall, with wide streets that would lead to it from all the city entrances. Around the pyramids and other areas of the city would have been gardens, palaces, towers and beautiful works of art that were unlike anything humans had ever seen. The city was also the cultural epicenter of the world, with science, music, mathematics, astronomy and literature thriving in the city's walls. The invention of writing and mathematics We take a lot of things for granted these days. For example, without the influence of the Babylonians, you wouldn't be watching this video right now. They helped spur a movement that would create various forms of writing and normalize writing as a way of taking notes and documenting the history and other facts that have since been lost to time. They also claim to have invented the wheel, modern agriculture, the bow, the plow, irrigation and several other inventions that helped found humanity as we know it. Without the Babylonians and their various inventions, we would not be who we are today. But did you know that many of the people who originally invented these machines, such as the wheel or the plow, claim that the ideas were given to them by angels or aliens? We don't know too much about the invention of most of these things, but many of the early humans claim to have been visited by beings that descended from the sky and informed them how to live a prosperous life and use their surrounding resources to their advantage. It's super interesting stuff, but we're getting a little off topic. Anyway, the Babylonians helped invent the first form of a writing system that involved clay tablets that would be engraved with wedge-shaped letters. This helped document much of their history and how they created early mathematics. To put this into perspective, these writing methods allow us to know more about ancient Babylon than we know about ancient Egypt. The Babylonians would also invent the fundamentals of modern mathematics. They would be the first civilization to use mathematics to help measure land, tax people, and conduct all sorts of business. They would also use numbers to document the night sky so they could create a lunar calendar that was shockingly accurate for its time. They're also the first civilization to use symbols to represent large numbers. For example, if a person needed to document that they owned 50 bales of wheat, they would have originally had to draw 50 individual symbols to represent this. However, as they became more efficient with their writing, they created symbols to represent numbers like 1, 10, and 60. We also have reason to believe that the Babylonians developed the first abacus, which is essentially an early version of a calculator. Written Law, The Hammurabi Code It may shock you to know that King Hammurabi was the first person to ever request that laws be written down. That seems pretty weird, right? Well, before this moment, most of the laws were just passed around by word of mouth, or they were implied. As you may expect, this left a lot of legal gray area for citizens, as they had no way to know for sure what was right or wrong. For example, Billy may tell you that it's illegal to own more than 50 piles of wheat. If you own more than that, you're supposed to give it away to the person closest to you. So, Billy runs off with half your crop of wheat. Little did you know, Billy was lying. Billy robbed you. Okay, obviously, that's a bit of a ridiculous way to think about it. But before Hammurabi decided to write down the laws, there was no surefire way to know what the king would consider being illegal. Hammurabi asked some of his workers to create giant pillars that would list the various laws of the land. At the time, there were just 282 laws, much different from today's world when there are thousands of laws we have to abide by. Most of Hammurabi's laws were strangely specific, but these rules would serve as guidelines that could be used if similar circumstances were to occur. For example, what you should legally do if your neighbor convinces you to give him all of your wheat. There were tons of laws that would help regulate businesses, make sure you paid your workers their wages, rules for trading, rental prices, slave prices, the list goes on and on. There were also the obvious laws that would dictate what would be considered criminal behavior and what would happen to you if you were caught breaking the law. There were even laws about adoption, marriage, and divorce. The Fall of Babylon Now we're getting into the thick of it. What caused this incredible city to eventually crumble and nearly be lost to time? When Hammurabi eventually passed away, his sons were tasked with ruling over the city. The problem was that his sons were not as stern as he was and they didn't have strong leadership skills. This led to the city slowly falling apart and becoming weak. The neighboring cities and countries began to lose hope in Babylon and noticed that the city was fraying at the seams. Using this to their advantage, the Kassites moved in and conquered Babylon, overthrowing the new leaders and claiming the city as their own. They would rule over Babylon for about 400 years. All of Hammurabi's rules would be overturned and the city would be completely turned on its head to better serve the Kassites' purposes. The Assyrians would later move in and overthrow the Kassites, claiming Babylon as their own. The city would only be reclaimed again by Babylonians in 612 BC, with much of the city being re-established and ruling over Mesopotamia once more. This new empire, considered the Second Babylonian Empire, is often referred to as the By 616 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar would use the fall of the Assyrian Empire to his advantage and claim the throne of Babylon for himself. His son would also learn from his father and work to bring Babylon back to its former glory. Nebuchadnezzar's son, King Nebuchadnezzar II, would rule over the city for 43 years and became one of the greatest leaders the city ever had. He would rule with an iron fist, but many of his laws were respected by the city's inhabitants, so all was well. He would also prove to be an amazing military leader and would help Babylon to expand west and claim more territory for itself. He would also lead the forces that saw the Hebrews being captured and forced into slavery for 70 years, according to various stories in the Bible. After Nebuchadnezzar passed away, the city would once again begin to fall apart. By 529 BC, the city had been claimed by the Persians and was now listed as part of the Persian Empire. Everything Nebuchadnezzar had done to restore the city had, once again, been undone. The Tower of Babel One of the most incredible things to come out of Babylon was the invention of the infamous Tower of Babel that is mentioned in the Bible and proven by history. This building was constructed shortly after the Great Flood wiped out nearly everything and everyone on the planet. According to biblical accounts, the Tower of Babel was built when all of the inhabitants of Mesopotamia still spoke the language. When they settled in the area, they wanted to build a large tower that would reach the sky. Some people seem to believe that the locals built the tower so that they could eventually reach heaven, though others believe that they built the tower so that they would not be drowned by another great flood. Either way, biblical accounts say that God had other plans. He confused the people by forcing them to forget their native tongue and speak new languages. They were no longer able to communicate, so the construction of the tower quickly fell apart. We don't know for sure which structure in the area is the aforementioned Tower of Babel, but researchers tend to believe that the best candidate is the Etemenanki of Babylon. This tower was allegedly dedicated to Marduk, the patron god of Babylon. Since several temples like this have been found in the area, it would make sense that a building like this could have been used as the basis for the Tower of Babel. Babylon Today Under the rule of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi government led a mission to excavate Babylon and attempt to bring the city back to life, including rebuilding and reconstructing one of Nebuchadnezzar's palaces. However, after the United States invaded Iraq back in 2003, their plans completely fell apart. The area was eventually reopened to tourists in 2009, though the project was never completed. Thanks to the Babylonians inventing modern writing, we know so much about their city and how humans once lived. If only this were true for other parts of the world, history may tell a much different story. What do you think about the city? Was it everything it's cracked up to be, or has some of history been misinterpreted or embellished over the years? Let us know in the comments! Thanks so much for watching! Be sure to hit that like button and ring the notification bell for more videos!