ABSTRACT
Babylon (modern Babil) Mesopotamia, see map p. xviii. Very little remains of the ancient Mesopotamian metropolis except an extensive ruin-field in the vicinity of the Arab village of Hilla. The Euphrates, which used to run straight through the town, has shifted its course and almost all the remains of the early Babylon-it was the capital of the Amorite dynasty during the 2nd millennium BC-are below ground-water level and therefore out of reach for the predominantly German archaeologists who have been working on the site since 1899. They concentrated on the Babylon of the Neo-Babylonian period (c. 625-539 BC). It was Nebukadrezzar II (c. 605-562 BC) who was responsible for making the town into one of the most splendid cities of the ancient world. The site was inhabited until the 2nd C BC.
