What is Babylon?
[[File:Hammurabi's Babylonia 1.svg|thumb|right|250px|Map showing the Babylonian territory upon Hammurabi's ascension in 1792 BCE and upon his death in 1750 BCE]] [[File:Babylon relief.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Detail of the [[Ishtar Gate]]]] '''Babylon''' was a [[city-state]] of ancient [[Mesopotamia]], in present-day [[Iraq]], about 85 kilometers (55&nbsp;mi) south of [[Baghdad]]. All that remains of the original ancient city of Babylon today is a mound of broken mud-brick buildings and debris in the fertile Mesopotamian plain between the [[Tigris]] and [[Euphrates]] rivers. Babylon was at first a small town which sprung up at the beginning of the 3rd millennium [[BCE]]. The town flourished and became well-known and important. Babylon eclipsed [[Nippur]] as the 'holy city' of Mesopotamia. This was about from 612 to 539 BCE. It was the time [[Hammurabi]] first unified the [[Babylonia]]n Empire. Babylon became the [[Capital (city)|capital city]] of the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]] . The [[Hanging Gardens of Babylon]] were one of the [[Seven Wonders of the Ancient World]]. ==Assyrian period== During the reign of [[Sennacherib]] of [[Assyria]], Babylonia was in a constant state of revolt, It was only pacified by the complete destruction of the city of Babylon. In 689 BCE, its walls, temples and palaces were razed, and the rubble was thrown into the Arakhtu, the river on the south side of the city. This act shocked the religious conscience of Mesopotamia. After the [[murder]] of Sennacherib by two of his sons, his successor Esarhaddon hurried to rebuild the old city. He was crowned there, and it was where he lived for part of the year. In the later overthrow of the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonians saw another example of divine vengeance.<ref>Albert Houtum-Schindler, Babylon, in ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 11th ed.</ref> ==Neo-Babylonian Chaldean Empire== Babylon threw off the Assyrian rule in 612 BCE and became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian [[Chaldea]]n Empire.<ref>Bradford, Alfred S. 2001. ''With arrow, sw