Monday, June 29, 2009

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were considered one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. It was build by King Nebuchadnezzar who ruled the city state of Babylon on the Euphrates River, near present day Al Hillah, Bail in Iraq, from 605 to 562 BC. He built it in around 580 BC to please his wife Amytis, daughter of the Median King Astyages, who was home sick for the mountains and vegetation of her native land, in what is now northern Iran. The terraced gardens were created at his royal palace in the Mesopotamian desert.


The Hanging Gardens was actually not hanging or suspend in mid air with cables or ropes but was actually built on a mountain slop with rooftop gardens. They were multi-level terraces which reached about 25 meters in the air, and were planted with different exotic species of plants, flowers, trees and even animals to fill the Gardens. They were kept alive by an irrigation system using water pumped up from the Euphrates. The plants hanging down from upper level down which gave the effect of a lush mountain landscape handing in mid-air. How big is the Garden? According to Diodorus Siculus, a Geek Historian, it was 400 feet wide, by 400 feet long ,and 80 feet high.

The Gardens must be very beautiful and it sight must have to be inspiring for Herodotus (Greek Historian) to consider it as one of his 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. But the Gardens doesn’t exist today and it existence is under debate. Firstly, it is due to the lack of documentation of them in the chronicles of Babylonian history. The Babylonian sources make no reference to the Hanging Gardens whatsoever. Secondly, nobody actually witnessed the gardens in person – not even Antipater of Sidon, who complied the list of Great Wonders.

Pelikan Hanging Gardens of Babylong has a golden caps with 4 levels terraces with garden geenery which is in line with what archaeologist described. The cap was in gold to represent the Golden Age of Babyon and the deep green gloss barrel to symobolizm the lush and verdant foliage of the desert oasis. The pen come with the 2 tones 18K gold nib, and individually numbered. It is intentionally limited to 410 pieces, because it represents the work of Bablylon priest and scholar Berossos from the 4th century BCE – the first scribe that acknowledge the magnificence of the gardens in writing.

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