Did the ancient city of Babylon exist, and if so, in what country would it be today?

mochyn

Babylon existed in the area we now know as syria http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/5178/city.html Feb 26 03, 1:07 AM

Gnomon

The ruins of Babylon are in modern-day Iraq: 'Its extensive ruins on the Euphrates River about 55 miles (88 kilometres) south of Baghdad lie near the modern town of al- Hillah, Iraq.' Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 98 Feb 26 03, 8:36 AM

McGruff

Famed for its gardens and ziggurats, the ancient city of Babylon is now little but dust in the Iraqi desert. Babylon was perhaps the first big city in the world, dating to the third millennium BC. It stood by the Euphrates River on an important trade route. Various dynasties ruled the city-state as it grew to govern much of ancient Mesopotamia. The city was destroyed in 689 BC and rebuilt to achieve its greatest size glory under the ruler Nebuchadnezzar II, who reigned from 605 to 538 BC. He is credited with building the hanging gardens, named by contemporaries as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. In 330 BC, Alexander the Great captured Babylon, planning to make it the capital of his empire. But he died soon after taking the city, and his successors built a new capital called Seleucia on the Tigris River. Most of Babylon's population moved to Seleucia, and Babylon withered and practically disappeared by the seventh century AD. Babylon's ruins are near the modern city of Al Hillah and about 55 miles south of Iraq's capital of Baghdad. Much of the ancient site has been looted, and only fragments of some building foundations remain. Between 1982 and 1989, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein ordered Babylon's walls rebuilt in the fashion of Nebuchadnezzar II. Hussein also built one of his own grand palaces near the site. Today, the baked-mud bricks are about all that's left of Babylon's ancient grandeur. http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20030402.html Sep 21 03, 8:55 AM