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The fall of Babylon occurred in 539 BC, when the Persian Empire conquered the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The success of the Persian campaign, led by Cyrus the Great , brought an end to the reign of the last native dynasty of Mesopotamia and gave the Persians control over the rest of the Fertile Crescent .
It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world c. 1770 – c. 1670 BC, and again c. 612 – c. 320 BC. It was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. [6] Estimates for the maximum extent of its area range from 890 (3½ sq. mi.) [7] to 900 ha (2,200 acres). [8]
Babylon was then attacked by the Indo-European-speaking, Anatolia-based Hittites in 1595 BC. Shamshu-Ditana was overthrown following the "sack of Babylon" by the Hittite king Mursili I. The Hittites did not remain for long, but the destruction wrought by them finally enabled their Kassite allies to gain control.
The period of Neo-Babylonian rule thus saw unprecedented economic and population growth throughout Babylonia, as well as a renaissance of culture and artwork as Neo-Babylonian kings conducted massive building projects, especially in Babylon itself, bringing back many elements from the previous 2,000 years of Sumero-Akkadian culture.
This article lists historical urban community sizes based on the estimated populations of selected human settlements from 7000 BC – AD 1875, organized by archaeological periods.
During the reign of the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I (1233–1197 BC), Babylonia was invaded and the Kassite king Kashtiliashu IV (1232–1225 BC) was overthrown. [12] Tukulti-Ninurta subjugated the region through a puppet-regime and removed the statue of Babylon's patron god Marduk and took it to Assyria.
The Assyrian army failed to capture Babylon and Nabopolassar's garrison at Uruk also successfully repulsed them. [3] On November 22/23 626 BC, Nabopolassar was formally crowned as King of Babylon, the Assyrians having failed to capture and kill him, which restored Babylonia as an independent kingdom after more than a century of Assyrian rule. [3]
The Code of Hammurabi — one of the oldest written laws in history, and one of the most famous ancient texts from the Near East, and among the best known artifacts of the ancient world — is from the first Babylonian dynasty. The code is written in cuneiform on a 2.25 meter (7 foot 4½ inch) diorite stele.