Seven Wonders of the World Hanging Gardens of Babylon

This hand-coloured engraving by the 16th-century Dutch artist Martin Heemskerck (1498 - 1574) depicts the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. According to the tradition,

the gardens did not hang, but grew on the roofs and terraces of the royal palace in Babylon. Nebuchadrezzar II, the Chaldean king, is supposed to have had the gardens built in about 600 bc as a consolation to his Median wife, who missed the natural surroundings of her homeland.

This image is a faithful reproduction of a two-dimensional work of art and thus not copyrightable in itself in the U.S. as per Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp.; the same is also true in many other countries, including Germany.The original two-dimensional work shown in this image is free content because: This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1923 are now in the public domain.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (also known as Hanging Gardens of Semiramis) and the walls of Babylon (near present-day Al Hillah in Iraq) are considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. They were built by Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC. He is reported to have constructed the gardens to please his wife, Amytis of Media, who longed for the trees and beautiful plants of her homeland. They were destroyed in an earthquake after the 1st century BC.

The lush Hanging Gardens are extensively documented by Greek historians such as Strabo and Diodorus Siculus. Through the ages, the location may have been confused with gardens that existed at Nineveh, whose king at the time was Nimrod, since tablets from there clearly show gardens. Writings on these tablets describe the possible use of something similar to an Archimedes' screw as a process of raising the water to the required height.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article, Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Technorati tags: Public Domain Clip Art and clip art or public domain and Seven Wonders of the World or Hanging Gardens of Babylon and Maarten van Heemskerck and Nanotech hitchhikers in blood or Seven Wonders of the World Great Pyramid of Giza and Presidential Podcast 07/07/07