Imagine: amid barren hills, where Bedouins pitched tents and
devout Arabs called out to Allah, the greatest city of all
time lay hidden beneath their feet. No one knew they were
walking atop a legend. Until 1899, when German archaeologist
Robert Koldewey arrived to make the world shudder at secrets
pulled from the earth. Luck itself seemed to fall into his
hands. With the first strikes of shovels, a wall emerged
from the sand - not just a wall, but a cyclopean rampart 7
meters wide and 12 high. Twelve steps later - a second wall,
of fired brick, nearly 8 meters thick, and behind it - a
third. The space between them was packed with earth, turning
two walls into a monolithic, impenetrable fortress. Every 50
meters - a watchtower. Koldewey counted 360 of them! The
inner wall stretched for 18 kilometers. If one measures a
city by the medieval rule - "a city is what is enclosed by a
wall" - then Babylon, built four thousand years ago, forever
remained the largest creation of man on Earth. But who were
those who raised this wonder? Where did they come from?
Koldewey's workers extracted fragments of reliefs from
glazed brick, gates plated with copper, winged lions that
eclipsed Egyptian masterpieces. Scholars found themselves at
a dead end: where did such a highly developed people come
from in Mesopotamia? Now archaeologists whisper: Babylon is
but the last glimmer of the mysterious civilization of the
Sumerians. A people who built stone cities, whose gold
ornaments even today arouse envy in Parisian jewelers, and
whose tombs with hundreds of sacrificed people make even the
hard-bitten shudder. Little is known about the Sumerians,
but beneath their cultural layer archaeologists found a
two-meter layer of clay - evidence of a catastrophic flood.
A great deluge. Was Noah not the only survivor? The
surviving Sumerians must have founded Babylon, reviving in
it both the grandeur and the depravity of a civilization
destroyed by the elements - or by the wrath of God? But
Koldewey found not just traces of a flood. He found proof of
two great legends: of the Tower of Babel and of the Hanging
Gardens of Semiramis. In the northeastern part of the city
he excavated strange cellars with unusual vaults. Inside lay
a well of three shafts. Specialists said: this was for water
intake, with a chain pump for continuous water supply. And
the vault was lined with stone - a material used in Babylon
only twice: in the construction of the northern wall and in
the building of the hanging gardens. Only now did Koldewey
understand: he stood on the vault of the evergreen gardens
of Queen Semiramis! A unique water-supply system fed a giant
multi-terraced structure that Herodotus called a wonder of
the world. Only the cellars have come down to us. They say
that from the terrace of these gardens the queen threw
herself down, handing the throne to her son, and in
mid-flight turned into a dove - forever flying from this
world with sorcerous knowledge. But the main find that
stunned the Western world is the remains of the Tower of
Babel. The width of its square foundation is 90 meters.
Around it - ruins of walls and cult buildings. The tower
itself, "Etemenanki" - "Temple of the Cornerstone of Heaven
and Earth" - served as a colossal sanctuary. On its summit
stood the temple of the god Marduk. Herodotus described it:
seven towers placed one upon another. The first story - 33
meters high, the second - 18, the remaining four - 6 each,
and the top one, 15 meters - a temple covered with gold and
blue brick, burning in the sun with a blue-gold flame,
visible for many kilometers. Clay tablets tell: the tower
was built over centuries. King Nabopolassar, by the command
of Marduk, ordered its restoration after the Assyrian
destruction. He did not finish in 75 years - his son
Nebuchadnezzar completed it. After 40 years the tower
appeared in all its splendor. In the temple above stood a
golden table and a bed covered with brocade. There the god
Marduk himself spent the night, and a chosen beauty pleased
him. Below, in another temple, stood a statue of Marduk of
pure gold - nearly 24 tons. A processional way led to the
foot, paved with meter-long slabs on a brick bed and
asphalt. On each slab was an inscription: "I,
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, paved this street for the
Lord Marduk." What a level their engineering science
reached! The Babylonians left us the sexagesimal numeral
system, precise methods for calculating the movements of
celestial bodies, and the belief in the black cat. Having
deciphered the tablets, scholars learned with surprise: in
those times people, too, considered a black cat crossing the
road a harbinger of misfortune. Calamities pursued Babylon
to its last days. The Persian king Cyrus, having captured
the city, was so struck by the tower that he ordered it
preserved and even bequeathed that a copy be built on his
tomb. But Xerxes proved less sentimental - he left behind
ruins. Alexander the Great, seeing the giant ruins, stood
before them spellbound. For two months his soldiers cleared
away the debris, paying tribute to lost grandeur: But who
taught the Sumerians and Babylonians all this? Were these
walls, towers, and gardens merely echoes of knowledge
bestowed by gods - or by aliens from the heavens?

Source: gopher://shibboleths.org/0/phlog/309.txt

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Shipwrecks & Shibboleths [San Francisco, CA - USA] (700:100/72)