BALKANOPOULOS Balkan Eastern Europe 2022: POST FEATURE – IRAQ – HILLAH (ANCIENT BABYLON) & KARBALA (2 October 2022, Day 3 covering 195km to 279km)

In this post we drive from Baghdad to Karbala in Iraq via Hillah (site of the Ancient City of Babylon).

Babylon is not a modern day Iraqi city but a 2019 UNSECO protected ancient archaeological site next to the Iraqi town of Hillah or Hilla, 85km south of Baghdad. Babylon was the capital city of the ancient Babylonian Empire, between the 19th and 15th centuries BC, and again between the 7th and 6th centuries BC. The Amorite king Hammurabi founded the short-lived Old Babylonian Empire in the 18th century BC. He built Babylon into a major city and declared himself its king. t has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world between 1770 -1670 BC and again 612 - 320 BC. The ancient city occupied just over 1,000 hectares and was constructed of mud-straw bricks (adobe). Much of the original construction has been restored using modern-day mud bricks.

The ancient city of Babylon is famous for two legendary wonders: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon and The Tower of Babel.

The gardens are ranked as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. They were described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of trees, shrubs, and vines, resembling a large green mountain constructed of mud bricks. No one knows where exactly in the city they were located since nothing has been found – they have only been described in stone tablets in ancient Assyrian. According to one legend, the Hanging Gardens were built alongside a grand palace known as The Marvel of Mankind, by the Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II (who ruled between 605 and 562 BC), for his Median wife, Queen Amytis, because she missed the green hills and valleys of her homeland. We saw this palace but believe me there are no hanging gardens around it – just yellow bricks – old and new !!!

The Tower of Babel is also written about and was definitely located within the walls of ancient Babylon. The Tower of Babel is an myth meant to explain why the world's peoples speak different languages. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language and migrating eastward, comes to the land of Shinar. There they agree to build a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Yahweh, observing their city and tower, confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other, and scatters them around the world.

The highlight of the day was visiting the abandoned Palace of Sadaam Hussein which overlooks ancient Babylon. It is huge made entirely of stone and marble with five levels and set atop a hill with commanding views of the area. We were allowed to walk around inside and the climax of the visit was having lunch at sunset (530-630pm) inside what was left of Saddam’s dining room overlooking the river and the setting sun. What was even better is that we ate DOLMA (or Dolmades) cooked by one of our guides Ibrahim or also doubles as a chef !!! There were a variety of veggies all stuffed with rice and minced lamb and flavoured with onion and spices. Quite simply they were the best I have ever had – better than my mum and grandma !!!

Our overnight town of Karbala was under an hour away and by the tie we got there is was around 730pm and we were buggered. The temperature today had reached almost 40C and took its toll on many since we walked quite a distance out in the open sun of ancient Babylon.

That first glass of wine hit the spot and capped off a magnificent day…