One of the most fascinating pieces of Babylonian folklore has been the hanging gardens. As the story goes, King Nebuchadnezzar built them for his Median wife to remind her of her homeland. It appears from the archaeological evidence that this is indeed what happened. By searching ancient Babylonian documents and references, the location of the gardens was determined by the famous Babylonian archaeologist Robert Koldeway in 1910 (Wellard, 1972, pp. 156).
The garden was constructed upon stone archways and its surface was sloped much as bleachers in a stadium are. The lowest level of the garden was probably thirty feet tall while the highest was over seventy. Interestingly enough, the Hanging Gardens was one of the few buildings in the city of Babylon which was constructed out of stone. The rest were all made out of clay bricks. The floor of the garden was a composite of several layers including lead, bricks, reeds, and of course, topsoil. (Muller, 1966, pp. 137) Since large trees were supposed to have grown in this garden, the layer of topsoil was probably quite thick, maybe ten feet deep.
The irrigation system for the garden was also quite unique. It is surmised that a special well was used in which buckets were tied to a rope which looped down one shaft of a well and up the other. These buckets, now filled, were raised to the highest level of the garden and dumped resulting in the water cascading down the consecutive tiers. Such a well as this has been discovered which is the only one of its kind in the city of Babylon. This idea of having an endless chain of buckets is not new and usually the power needed to operate the machine would be supplied by animals. The Hanging Gardens well is in such tight quarters that this would not be possible and slaves were most likely used. (Wellard, 1972, pp. 157) This well also has a large center shaft which was probably used for maintenance. The Hanging Gardens must have been quite a site and one idea of how they may have looked can be seen in Figure 7. Evidence suggests that underneath the gardens, grain was stored. (Ashmawy, 1996, Online)
One of the most complete description of the gardens was given by Diodorus Siculus (Appendix C). Unfortunately, the gardens have long since been destroyed and only ruins are left as shown in Figure 8 (Ashmawy, 1996, Online).
The gardens undoubtedly supplied privileged solitude to the king and important administrators and were an example of King Nebuchadnezzar’s immense wealth.