Babylonian Empire Revived

In 626 BCE, a Chaldean leader named Nabopolassar took the throne of Babylon and began a revolt against Assyrian rule. The uprising launched what historians call the Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire, which within a few decades had helped destroy the mighty Assyrian state and made Babylon the leading power of the Near East. It also set the stage for the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, whose building projects made the city famous across the ancient world.

For much of the preceding century, Babylonia had been a restless part of the Assyrian empire. Assyrian kings, most notably Sennacherib, had treated Babylon harshly, and the city repeatedly rebelled. Sennacherib sacked it in 689 BCE, though his successors rebuilt and restored it. By the 620s BCE, Assyria was weakened by civil conflict following the death of Ashurbanipal, and the south saw an opening. Nabopolassar, whose origins are not fully clear but who is generally identified as a Chaldean from southern Mesopotamia, seized the moment.

After he was recognized as king in Babylon, the war with Assyria dragged on for years. Nabopolassar secured the south and then pushed northward, eventually allying with the Medes of the Iranian plateau. Together they captured the old Assyrian cities, with Nineveh falling around 612 BCE. Remnants of Assyrian resistance held out for a few more years, supported by Egypt, but by about 605 BCE Babylonian forces under the crown prince Nebuchadnezzar had defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish and secured control of Syria and much of the Levant.

Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled from about 605 to 562 BCE, brought the empire to its height. He rebuilt Babylon on a monumental scale, with massive walls, the Ishtar Gate decorated in glazed blue brick, and a grand processional way leading to the temple of Marduk. His campaigns in the west included the capture of Jerusalem in 597 BCE and its destruction in 586 BCE, followed by the deportation of many of its people to Babylonia, an episode central to Jewish history and the biblical account of the exile.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, later counted among the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, are traditionally linked to Nebuchadnezzar. Their existence is debated, however. No Babylonian text clearly describes them, and no confirmed archaeological remains have been found. Some scholars suggest the gardens may have been in Assyrian Nineveh instead, or that they were embellished by later Greek writers.

The Neo-Babylonian Empire proved short-lived. Weak successors and political instability followed Nebuchadnezzar's death, and in 539 BCE Babylon fell to Cyrus the Great of Persia. Even so, the era left a lasting mark on art, astronomy, and the memory of Babylon as a city of splendor.