Categories: uncategorized
Date: 16 January 2006 18:16:29
Providing the name's right!
Looking through today's Times I found an interesting article in the Notebook section.
Archaeologists have been trying to find the site of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. As one of the seven great wonders of the Ancient world it is the exception to the rule as they not been able to find any real trace of it. We still have the Pyramids and all the other ancient sites have been positively identified but not the Gardens.
The set of brick foundations found in the ruis of Babylon are said to be unconvincing.
Archaeologists have now come up with the theory that the Gardens were in fact built in Nineveh and not Babylon. It appears that ancient texts may have been muddled as to who built them and where. Not an uncommon occurance it appears.
So they may never have been in Babylon and may not have been built by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, but by Sennacherib, an Assyrian King.
Maybe the ancient Greeks, who designated the ancient wonders as an early travel tour, didn't like the image of Nineveh as being an evil and sinful place. Would you want to travel somewhere that involved journeying in the bely of a whale for 3 days? Me neither.
My own personal belief is that they were actually a trial model for an early forerunner of Ikea or MFI and came as a flat pack unit. However, as only the trial one was purchased, and took so long to assemble, it never became a big seller!
Think of how many visits to the shop there must have been; to have the plans explained, as they were written in Japanese (a language actually unheard of at the time but instructions are always in Japanese), and missing parts provided!!!
So there you have it. You have been able to be educated while reading my Log.