BABYLON

MAGNIFICENCE OF GOD MARDUK

Part 3

(Marduk : image "The earth chronicles handbook - Zecharia Sitchin - Bear and Co - )

Babylon, of which location is situated in the contemporary Iraq, at approximately 60 miles from Bagdad near Hilla, does not only represent the antique city itself, but indeed all the Babylonian empire.
It’s the Gate of the Gods (of God Marduk).

Babylon is located in Sumer, in the first region, ( Ki-Engi) ruled by the God Enlil and his sons.
(Read the previous posts about Marduk / Râ, I shall not return on the history which gave birth to Babylon).

Marduk, after the big devastation, (of which the Bible would have been inspired by telling the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah) sees finally his era to be stated: the era of Aries. He becomes the major god of Babylon and Egypt (Râ).
The events told below, remain uncertain for the dates. But it is advisable to keep in mind that kings and military chiefs, are generally guided by the gods, among whose certain are hostile to Marduk.

Originally, Babylon is a small city of which the name is rarely quoted in the tablets dating of Shar-kaly-sharri, king of the Akkad empire of which it is a part, 4400 years ago ( -2400 BC ).
Then, Babylon becomes the secondary administrative centre in the Empire of Ur III around - 2100/200.

Under the Amorite reign, (paleo-Babylonian period, around - 2000) Babylon begins to extend its prestige.

I - BABYLON AND THE AMORITES
This dynasty, founded around - 1900 by Sumu-Abum, offered to Babylon, under the reign of his successor Sumu-la-El, a certain importance.
But, it will be under the great reign of Hammurabi (-1800 ), which submitted Larsa, Eshnounna and Mari, that Babylon releases itself from the trusteeship of Elam (Susa) and turns into the major political power of Mesopotamia.

More in detail, here is " the Hammurabi empire ", in orange on the map.(source : http://www.antikforever.com)
Hammurabi

This king was particularly devoted to Marduk. He made of Babylon a sprawling city with a so high ziggurat that it looked like a skyscraper, at the centre of a big sacred surrounding wall.

His military campaigns transformed Babylon into a big Empire. Archaeological proofs and writings of that period of apogee show, in particular, the sneaky attack of Mari (Syria today), important Sumerian city-estate on the Euphrates, which he overcame.

Sixth king of Babylon, Hammurabi benefited from one of the longest reign of the antiquity of the Near-East and thus, one of the most prestigious, more than 40 years!

He is, in particular, famous for his code of laws.
A not religious code but from " divine inspiration ". ( Marduk).
In fact, it’s more a compilation of law cases showing good and right examples.
The code prolongs in legal matter, rather than juridical, the military and political work of the founder of the empire.
(It will be necessary to wait until the Ancient Rome to see appearing the first theories of law and justice such as we know it nowadays.)

The Hammurabi code processes the hierarchical organization of the society, as the "social welfare", the prices, the salaries, the professional liability, the judicial running and the incurred punishments.
He could be summarized as " the powerful does not have to oppress the weak ". For example, the slaves must be well treated and, on no account be separated from their wife and children.
The code was sculptured on steles, which were placed in public locations of cities and countries in order that " nobody ignored the law ".
The most known stele and which especially crossed the times is the one in diorite discovered in Susaand presented as that of Hammurabi. It is now in the Louvre Museum (Paris, France) and measures 2,5 meters high. (below)

Look at the detail at the top of the stele, which shows Hammurabi in front of the god Utu/Shamash, god of Justice.
(For the record: Utu = son of Nannar, grandson of Enlil, twin brother of Inanna; note once more time the size of the Nephilims, sat, they have the same height as their visitor).

Hammurabi knew that the unification of a people and its country could be solved only by using the same language and laws. So he made adopt a unique language, the Akkadian, a single religion (Marduk) and especially a single law case, from where indeed his Hammurabi code.

These rules were followed until to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and applied during more than 1000 years.
Thanks to the writings of this great king, to the numerous tablets with signed contracts, dated from his reign and from his successors that we can today redraw the history of the empire of Babylon.
By him, Babylon knew as well a very important literary and intellectual renewal.

Under the reign of King Hammurabi, Babylon, thanks to new irrigations, developed a strong agricultural production even if, for some reasons still ignored today, a degradation of the demographic and economic situation happened, in particular with the death of the king, when the empire began to crumble.
(It is clearly demonstrated all along the World History that a single man can do everything. But after his death, everything disintegrates. And the empires collapse. A single man…… because backed up by a powerful god).

Ur, Nippur, Uruk or Larsa were abandoned for the benefit of Babylon, which gets back their lifeblood and integrates their cultural and religious traditions.

Under the supremacy of Hammurabi, the population of the royal palace strongly increased, in particular because the Amorite kings had for tradition, in case of victory, to take with them, the harem of the defeated king!
The palace of the king is built with a single main entrance in order to filter the entries and has several buildings distributed round a wide courtyard with trees.

The Temple of Marduk: the Esagil
It’s built in the middle of the city, in the oriental part.

E.SAG.IL means " The temple with a heightened pinnacle”.
Beside it had been built the ziggurat of Etemenanki. (Often both monuments are confused).
The Esagil has suffered from plunderings by the Hittites who in addition, provoked the fall of the first Babylonian dynasty.
The worst destruction was the fault of Sennacherib, the Assyrian, who destroys the ziggurat. But it was restored by Nebuchadnezzar II, prestigious king of Chaldea.
The searches of Esagil, almost vanished today, indicate that the temple of Marduk was approximately about 150 meters. Its dependences formed a quadrangle of about 500 meters for one side. It’s said that its plan had been drawn by the god Marduk.
The temple had a reverse "L" shape, of 180 meters length and approximately 120 meters width, and its height was estimated at 10 meters.

In the sanctuary of Marduk, the Ekua, was also the places of meditation dedicated to his spouseSarpanit in the North and in the South to his son Nabu, very revered in Babylon.
We know by Nebuchadnezzar II that the walls of Ekua were covered with gold. All the furniture, the objects dedicated to the worship of Marduk had a big value.
The prestige of Esagil allowed him to become a major economic agent in his country, thanks to all his numerous possessions.
The Enuma Elish, the Epic of the Creation gave the origin of the Esagil. It would have been built by the gods themselves on the first lands of the Abzû, the subterranean waters under the control of Enki, in honour of the god of gods: Marduk.
The Mesopotamians considered this place as the centre of the World, where everything was created.
So, on the maps of the World, the Mesopotamians always placed Esagil in the centre. Centre of the World.
Nevertheless in spite of (or because of) its magnificence, Babylon fell under the repeated Hittiteattacks, was plundered and saw the Amorite dynasty vanish.
(The Hittites are a people whose language is connected to the Indo-Europeans. When these appear in Minor Asia, in the XXVI th century BC, they submitted and assimilated the native peoples, among whom the Hattis from whom they took their name and their various gods, myths and rites.)

II - BABYLON AND THE KASSITES
After the Hittite surge, the Kassites settle down in Babylon and found their dynasty with their first king Agum.

(Kassites: Ancient Oriental population, native apparently from the Zagros mountains. The Zagros mountains constitute the biggest chain of Iraq and the second biggest chain of Iran, with a total length of 1 500 kms(932 miles) from West of Iran, more particularly the province of Kordestan, to the borders of Iraq until the Persian Gulf. The chain ends at the Strait of Ormuz.)

We know a few things about the Kassite Babylon. It is nevertheless this dynasty, which will reign the longer over the Empire. From about – 1595 to -1155, date of the taking of Babylon by the Elamites.
It is doubtless at this period that the plan of the city settles definitively.
The Kudurrus, engraved steles of that time and found during searches, give evidence of many donations in lands to the Esagil, which increases its strength and becomes a real touristic phenomenon for that period. And consequently, economic.
(NB. A kudurru is originally a stele used as land donation, very "illustrated" with gods and kings of these former days.)
Example of Kudurru - Wikipedia source - The "Pebble" Michaux, kudurru Babylonian of Kassite period returned to France in 1785 by the French botanist André Michaux, exposed to the Coin room of the French National Library (BNF).

Other example of Kudurru – the Kassite King – Louvre Museum (Paris,France)

Babylon asserts itself as cultural and religious capital of the whole Low Mesopotamia.
Around -1400, the Kassites see emerging a terrible enemy: the Assyrians (Ninive) who already dominate the High Mesopotamia.

Begin, then, a ceaseless fight, which will end by a new plunder of Babylon around -1300.
The Assyrian Tukulti-Ninourta the 1st brings down the bulwarks of the city, removes the statues of Marduk and makes draft a text telling his victory. (The epic of Tukulti-Ninurta).
But he does not succeed to settle his dominion on Babylon. These unstable times begin to benefit to the Elamites.
(Elam is situated in current Iran towards the present region of Fars, around the former capital, Anshan. The Elamite civilization developed during the High Antiquity in southwest of Iran, in margin of the Mesopotamian civilization: Susa).
Even if the Kassites succeed in re-establishing the power, the Elamites invade Babylon around -1250.
It is Kutir-Nahhunte III who has in charge to conserve the throne in Babylon.

III - MARDUK AND THE SECOND DYNASTY OF ISIN
The Elamites will not last for long in Babylon. They are chased away by Isin around
– 1130 BC, and his son, Nebuchadnezzar I will make Elam to repay its invasion and especially the fact of having stolen the big statue of the God Marduk. Moreover, He will bring it back into Babylon.

The dynasty of Isin under Nebuchadnezzar I, ( Nabu-kudurri-usur) is crucial for Babylon.
It is in this time that :
. Marduk establishes his superiority on all the other gods and becomes " God of the Gods "
. The Epic of the Creation, the Enuma Elish is written.

Moreover, the Ziggurat of Marduk concretizes this period by its name:
House-Link of the Heaven and the Earth or Etemenanki.
Babylon is dedicated " holy city ".
Under Isin was drafted a topographic text describing with details the places of worship until to the most modest and all the places marked by the religion: gates, bulwarks, rivers, streets...
Around -1050, Babylon (that we also name Tintir) is invaded by the Arameans and later by the Chaldeans.

IV - THE ASSYRIAN DOMINION
Approximately 3000 years ago, the chaos once again reigns in Babylon.
All want to rule the " more beautiful city of the world ". Assyrians, Chaldeans and others try to seize the city in order to take advantage of its splendours as its economy.
All these unlimited rivalries between the various countries facilitate the hegemony of the Assyria, which settles on the throne, in - 729 Teglath-Phalasar III

Teglath-phalasar III, bas-relief from his palace in Nimrud,
end of the VIIIth century BC, Louvre Museum, Paris, France

Then Sargon II comes who restores temples and ramparts of Babylon. But the revolt rumbles. Mérodach-Baladan succeeded twice to take back the city.
( Below, Sargon II in Royal Fashion Limestone Sculpture. 2 feet 11 inches tall from Khorsabad, and is now in the Museo di Antichita, Turin).

The legendary cruelty of the Assyrians remained sculptured on the bas-reliefs.
Here are two examples of which the source is the very interesting site, ancientreplicas.
Look at the people impaled in the background.

Sennacherib, successor of Sargon II, is kidnapped by the rebels and delivered to the Elamites who execute him. The father of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, full of hatred for Babylon, penetrates there and plunders everything including the statue of Marduk, which will be broken.

It is important to understand why the kings seize the statue of Marduk in every taking of Babylon.
Besides the symbol of victory which we understand, it was necessary to knock it down in the heart and spirit of the peoples. The populations thought that the statue was "invested" by the power of the god, and consequently to take it outside of the city, was to take outside of the city also the protection of the concerned god. This was without counting the unalterable determination of Marduk, inherited from his father Enki.
Every time, the statue will be returned or reconstructed. Every time, Babylon will get back its power until the end of its time was decreed and until Marduk leaves towards other horizons, the Scandinavian countries of which he made pioneers of human rights and of quality of life, clearly before us.

A bas-relief was found in the royal palace of Ninive, the capital of the Assyria where Assyrian soldiers count the booty taken in Babylon.

Then came the reign of Esarhaddon, other son of Sennacherib who chooses the appeasement and begins the very expensive reconstruction of the city.

Whatever is the political dominion, the cultivated ant trade elites fight energetically to maintain the high religious and cultural status of Babylon.
The inhabitants of Babylon are in addition exempted from any tax!
A text of that time, the Mirror of the Prince, considers clearly that the royal tax system (thus foreigner) does not concern Babylon, nor either Nippur (city of Enlil) and Sippar!

V - CHALDEAN DYNASTY AND APOGEE OF BABYLON
In Babylon reigned a particularly strong spirit of revolt and resistance. Resistance fighters, united and active, finished with the reign of the Assyrians.
Nabopolassar, from Chaldean origin, takes the power. We suppose that his role just before the " coup d'état " was governor of the region of the Country of the Sea.
He acts by guile. In - 625, he claims to support one of the Assyrian pretenders to the throne of Babylon. In exchange for his authority on the city, he promises to Sin-Shar-ishkun (the Assyrian) his military support.
In fact, as soon as appointed, he takes the power and "thanks" the Assyria.
After some years of conflict, and supported, naturally by the very excited Babylonians, he shoots down the Assyrian empire with the assistance of the king of Medes, Cyaxare. We are around - 610.
Nabopolassar is important in the apogee of Babylon for having restored the power to the Babylonians but also by his descent. He is the father of Grand Nebuchadrezzar II who will reign with strength and elegance over Babylon from - 605 to - 562.
He founds the Neo-Babylonian empire which will cover almost all the Near East, from the Egyptian borders to the Anatolian Taurus and near Persia.

Under the reign of the father as of the son, profound transformations, introduced by the first one and finished by the second one, will mark forever the history of Babylon.
These legendary works will become a myth, a legend which will cross centuries and borders. Everywhere, we shall speak about Babylon, about its gardens, about its city, about its temples, about the processional way and about the god Marduk.

(Below, one of the howling lions of the way - source: www.ancientreplicas.com)

The city and the surrounding walls will be completely restored by Nebuchadrezzar II. Royal palace, ziggurat, temples, main avenues of which the Processional Way and the gate of Ishtar.

Then he will make build a second exterior wall of 11 km length from the hill of Babil to the south Euphrates.
The rampart surrounds an agricultural zone capable of providing Babylon in case of siege.
Let’s study more in detail the Babylon of Nebuchadrezzar II and his works concerning especially the Etemenanki, ziggurat dedicated to Marduk.

The Etemenanki
The exterior wall covers the city on the east bank of the Euphrates and contains the whole interior city.
The surrounding wall is a succession of three walls, that on the middle being the most solid with a ditch of 50 meters length filled with water.
The fortifications receive 120 defensive towers.
The heart of Babylon as city extends on about 500 hectares. But dimensions and evaluations can differ a little according the researchers.
Here are all the monuments which made the magnificence and the worldwide celebrity of Babylon.

It is divided into 10 districts, the main is Eridu in homage to Enki / Ea, father of Marduk.
Here is the plan of the city. In the centre, the Etemenanki and the temple of Marduk, the Esagil.

Concerning the Etemenanki, " house-foundation of the heaven and the earth ", originally with a height of seven floors, nothing remains of the building except the imprint in the ground.
The Esagil or the Etemenanki would have been the famous Tower of Babel. It exists most of the time a confusion between both monuments and we often believe that it is about the same. For Sitchin, the Esagil was the Tower of Babel, centre of astronomical observation, but he depicts it as the Etemenanki... In fact both buildings are very high.
(Furthermore, his conclusions in his book " The End of the Days ", asserting that Marduk would have been killed in Babylon are really funny and I am profoundly appalled, that after so many interesting researches and pioneers approaches of our history, he fell so easily into the biblical trap. Marduk, great God is always alive, with his Father Enki and the other Annunakis. These beings have the power to change their body at will and to maintain their DNA in perfect condition. How to believe as Sitchin asserts that Marduk would have been put in captivity? Him? During 24 years? He goes out of his body at will, crosses through the worlds at the light speed and he would have stayed as a moron in his prison? The soul crosses through any thing. He was able to change his body, certainly, they make it regularly. (Regularly for them, it is about hundreds of thousand years). Then the famous " eye-witnesses" saw his " dead envelope ",so.
But, if you perceive the died skin of a snake which moulted, would you think that the whole snake died there in front of your eyes? Certainly not. On the contrary, the snake regenerated left to live a new life!
I shall return on this notion of immortality and psychic powers in my next message. Marduk is alive. And the Messiah is not the one that we believe.
The humanity has not finished to fall down, believe me and for many, it will be too late.)

Back to Nebuchadrezzar II
Here are the writings found of the various kings who succeeded one another in Babylon: (Wikipédia source).
" Nabopolassar ( 625-605 ) declares:
" Mardouk, the Lord, ordered me about the Etemenanki, the tower with floors of Babylon, which before my time had collapsed, to assure its foundation in the breast of the lower world and its summit, to make it similar to the sky ".
Nebuchadrezzar (605-562), asserts that
" of Etemenanki, I heightened the point with cooked bricks of radiant enamel, similar to the color of the sky. "
Herodote gives the following description:
" The last tower contains a big chapel, and in the chapel we see a bed richly settled and near it a golden table. They still say that the god comes personally in his temple and rests on this bed ". (Histories, I). "

Here are numerous images of the reconstituted Babylon, in Iraq, under Saddam Hussein's reign, from 1985 and then drawings.
Thus, to summarize:
. The Esagil is the Temple (several floors) where Marduk could live a few days but he did not stay there permanently as it was said, in particular by Sitchin.
(What a God of this importance would do always "locked" in Babylon? These beings are extraterrestrials who are used to move at the light speed, by their "skybird" and then by their psychic powers.
Do not forget that at the epoch of Babylon, the other civilizations took shape, by Thot and Enki in particular. Marduk loves his father, he often visits him. The long absences of Marduk are because of his journey on Nibiru, certainly not because his "confinement" or his "death").
. The Etemenanki ( Etemenenki) is the Ziggurat with 7 floors, for me, famous Tower of Babel. Tower of launch or " small NASA " prematurely, centre of astronomical studies, it doesn't much matter. It has marked the spirits and embodied the power of Marduk. The Etemenanki is his own " pyramid of Guizeh ".

The bulwarks of Babylon were drilled by eight enormous gates baptized by the name of a divinity which has a defender function. The most known gate because the best preserved, in the museum of Berlin, is the one of Ishtar.

During the invasion of Iraq by the Americans, the site of Babylon was chosen as military base!!! This has considerably damaged many monuments.
(A country without History cannot respect that of others - And what to say about their plunderings and appropriations of the museum of Bagdad... Did they look for the missing tablets of Enki?... Where are revealed inestimable secrets? Some people assert that they made this war only for it... What would be very possible). Below, the Americans on the site - images Wikipédia.

Drawings which reproduce the Etemenanki inside the city.

As usual, the successors of Nebuchadnezzar II and of his father, founder of the dynasty, will not match.

The last king of Babylon, in particular, Nabonide, misunderstood or enigmatic, has made enemies of many noble persons of the realm before losing any power.

VI - BABYLON AND THE PERSIANS
CYRUS II the Great, king of Persians, "attacks" Babylon in - 539, by surprise by the gate of Enlil. The already ghostly power falls in dust.
Babylon loses its independence.
Nevertheless, Cyrus II proclaims his desire to keep the prosperous city and so gets the approval of the local clergy by decreeing serious favours for them.
It was at the request of Marduk that Cyrus entered in the city, without the slightest battle!What Marduk wants...

Once more, the fall of the realm of Babylon does not mean its decline.
Under the dominion of the Achaemenids, Darius Ier, (-520) after Cyrus II, Babylon is left the most developed economically and the most populated within the Empire, even when its oriental territories were removed.

Babylon has the rank of imperial city and offers to the Persian sovereigns their wintry residence.

In - 331, the Persian empire falls into “the famous hands” of Alexander the Great, after the victory of Gaugamela.
Negotiations open between the conqueror and the Babylonian aristocracy. Alexandre, skillful, orders the restoration of the Esagil and joins the clergy devoted to the worship of Marduk. Alexander seems to want to make of Babylon the capital of his empire. He dedicates himself to the administration of the city, to the works surroundings, establishes a workroom of coinage in his effigy. He dies in - 323 from malaria, as it is said, although the rumour of poisoning is possible.

The kings succeed after one another, but even under Antiochos IV (around - 170) Babylon remains a big city.
Besides little hellenized, the autochtonous population remains majority.
The Esagil always has a very important weight in the life of the city.
He is managed by a council which supervises the land taxes, always vast and oversees the organization of the worship of the other temples of Babylon.

Here is the reconstruction of Babylon at sunset.
(For the source the image is signed).

VII - THE END OF ANTIQUE BABYLON
Around - 141 approximately, the Parthias Arsacides take the power in Babylonia. (Other Persian tribe).
Little by little, the city declines. But it remains the conservatory of the antique Mesopotamian civilization and it is from the Esagil that results the last document written in cuneiform, an astrological tablet dated - 67.
Pliny the Elder writes at the same epoch that the temple is always active although the city is more or less in ruins.

It will be necessary to wait two centuries after our era in order that the urban population leaves Babylon.
Farmers settle down there then and use the bricks of the Ziggurat of Marduk to enrich their lands and plant even palm groves in the centre of the former commercial district!
But Babylon became a myth.
It is always alive today.
And the power of the Great God Marduk, also.