A few shots of Babylon!

[texascavtrooper]

Ok I have been asked to post some pictures of the ruins of Babylon. So here are just a few. I will try to get the others that I have as soon as I can. I hope you enjoy them. They were taken in 2003 just aftre the invasion of Iraq.
Bryan

[Jona Lendering]

THANKS!! Are there more photos? (You deserve 100 laudes.)

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Great shots......

[D B Campbell]

Ok I have been asked to post some pictures of the ruins of Babylon.

Guilty!

So here are just a few.

Great stuff, Bryan -- thanks.

[texascavtrooper]

Yes I have more photos but I can't get to them right now. I will try to get them as soon as I can. When I get them I will post them.
Bryan

[Jona Lendering]

Yes I have more photos but I can't get to them right now. I will try to get them as soon as I can. When I get them I will post them.
Bryan

I would really love that (and I guess many others will so too).

[texascavtrooper]

Ok I have been able to get some of the pictures. There are still a couple that I have not got off the memory card yet. So here are the ones I have.!

[Senovara]

ah wonderful! Thank you for the pics Bryan

[Sean Manning]

Thanks very much for the pics, Bryan!

[D B Campbell]

The Ishtar Gate is fantastic, isn't it? Glad to see it's still standing!

Of course, our friends in Berlin have always been able to visit their own version.

[Jona Lendering]

The Ishtar Gate is fantastic, isn't it? Glad to see it's still standing!

I think it's a copy; Berlin has the original.

[Jona Lendering]

The Ishtar Gate is fantastic, isn't it? Glad to see it's still standing!

I think it's a copy; Berlin has the original.

An interesting note: at the latest Rencontre Assyriologique, Joachim Oelsner told that the Procession Road in front of the Ishtar Gate was Hellenistic, almost certainly built by Antiochus I (as governor of Babylonia, before he became king).

[texascavtrooper]

Yes this is a copy. The Germans have the original. The Iraqis tried to get the real one from Germany but no such luck. The tile Lion in the first group of pictures is the only original part left in Babylon.
Bryan

[Jona Lendering]

Yes this is a copy. The Germans have the original. The Iraqis tried to get the real one from Germany but no such luck.

Yep. And that is why this photo from the website of the British Museum



is not the cultural disaster it at first sight seems to be.

I think I remain within forum rules if I tell that many of the accusations that Babylon was destroyed by the liberators, have now been proved exaggerated. Most of the damage to Babylon was already done by Saddam.

I have not been there, and I think it is likely that certain things have gone wrong (especially in the Baghdad Museum), but it now turns out that on most sites, damage was restricted, and photos like the one above are not what they seem to be.

I just wrote an article in a Dutch newspaper in which I summarized the good news about the Iraq heritage.

[texascavtrooper]

Yes you are correct in stating that the damage was already done before we got there, but not by Saddam. It was done by the people that looted any and everything they could get there hands on. The only reason that the tile lion in the museum wasn't gone was it was to heavy and big to carry off. Not to defend the bastard but he did try and protect Babylon from damage. I was there and spoke with the woman that ran the tours of the ruins. She told us that up until the locals found out that Saddam was gone nobody did anything to Babylon. One good thing. They have recovered some of the stuff from Babylon
Bryan