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Why the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Seven Wonder is special
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are the most controversial of all the Seven Wonders because some archaeologists doubt that this Seven Wonder ever existed. After exploring the ruins firsthand in Iraq and reading extensively, I believe they did exist, but on a less grand scale than widely thought.
Theories vary:
The most popular account
is that King Nebuchadnezzar II (of biblical fame)
constructed this wonder in the 6th century BC to please his wife. Babylon's flat
desert-like landscape made her homesick for the verdant mountains of Media where
she was reared. So, the king built an artificial, terraced hill lushly
cultivated with trees and flowering plants.
Another says that a
powerful Assyrian queen built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon for her own
pleasure.
Others believe
this Seven Wonder was conceived much earlier by an Assyrian king.
Yet
other experts go so far as to think that the Hanging Gardens
existed in Nineveh,
not Babylon.
Hanging Gardens
map location
Colossus of Rhodes
Hanging Gardens
Lighthouse of Alexandria
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
Pyramid of Khufu
Statue of Zeus
Temple of Artemis
Pyramids of Egypt -1
Great Wall of China - 2
Taj Mahal -3
Serengeti Migration -4
Galapagos Islands -5
Grand Canyon -6
Machu Picchu -7
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