...
The Desolation of Babylon
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(therefore, Babylon must Rise Again)
PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF below
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RIGHT:
Trees and Fertile Land at Babylon, 1914
(the actual photo-documentation below)
Data accompanying the Photograph reads...
Date taken: March - April 1914
Photographer: Gertrude Bell [my note; earned the title "Queen Of The Desert"]
Location: Babylon - Iraq
Modern location: Babylon
Description: Plantation of palm trees
RIGHT:
The German archaeological team, directed by Robert Koldewey, occupied the "Expeditionhaus", located at the Arab Kweiricsh Village on the grounds of Babylon.
The top photo is 1907, the bottom one 1913. Both show the grounds and surrounding area, including the Euphrates, surrounded by the dense growth of mature Palm trees and vegetation. This is not the desolation prophesied to engulf Babylon and the "Land" of Babylon after its Final Fall.
Note in the bottom photo the foreground scraped of all vegetation. This is typical, and expected, of Babylon's active dig sites, then as well as today.
LEFT: A painting of the Babil Mound at Babylon 1901 by Walter Andrae (more HERE about his accuracy to detail).
Note the green grasslands and the cattle feeding by the Arab tent in the background.
LEFT bottom: This 2014 photograph from the Ferrell Jenkins Ministry shows the same scene and angle 113 years later. The green fields are still there.
Hardly the desolate land Babylon of Chaldea (Iraq) will become AFTER its final, complete, and total destruction as prophesied in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Revelation-- an event which is obviously yet to happen in the Future.
BELOW: The lush greenery of palm trees and vegetation that covers the ancient site today seen in this 2005 Babylon Damage Report photograph.
BELOW: The trees and growth immediately surrounding the focal point of the protected active-archaeological research grounds of today's Babylon.
BELOW: Before we consider this PHOTOGRAPIC PROOF picture, we must read again...
But you will be desolate forever," declares the LORD......Her cities have become an object of horror, A parched land and a desert..Jeremiah 51:26, 43
The square flat-base below is all that remains of the Etemenanki Ziggurat, believed by many to be the foundation of the original Tower Of Babel. It is a centerpiece of the Babylon archaeological grounds.
For one who believes in the LITERAL INTERPRETATION of the Bible prophecy above, and yet believes that Babylon of Chaldea (Iraq), the only Babylon identified in the prophecy of Jeremiah, has already met its Final Fall when it fell to the Persians in 539 BC, we ask, 'WHERE IS THE "PARCHED LAND" AND "DESERT" IN THE PHOTOGRAPH BELOW?' This PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF is a stunner! It is "Etemenanki", the TOWER OF BABEL at Babylon !
PALM TREE SHADE IN 1860s:
A few black tents and flocks of sheep and camels were scattered over the yellow plain. They belonged chiefly to the Zobeide, an ancient tribe renowned in the history of the conquering Arabs under their first caliphs, and now pasturing their flocks in the wilds of Babylonia. From Amran, the last of the great mounds [at Babylon], a broad and well-trodden track winds through thick groves of palms. About an hour's ride beneath pleasant shade brings the traveler to the falling gateway of the town of Hillah. A mean bazaar, crowded with Arabs, camels, and [donkeys], leads to a bridge of boats across the Euphrates. The principal part of the town, containing the fort and the residence of the governor, is on the opposite side of the river.
Austen H. Layard, Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh And Babylon, Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York, 1871, p. 414. (Austen Henry Layard was one of the greatest explorers and archaeologists of Mesopotamia)
2018— All Remarks below are from The Official Management Plan of Babylon
(Property Nominated by the Government of Iraq in January 2018 for Inscription on the World Heritage List
(in coordination with UNESCO and the WORLD MONUMENTS FUND; p. 51-73)
1. “occasional rainstorms pour large quantities of water on the site.” p.
2. “Animals inhabit Babylon’s wetlands, arid zones, and agricultural areas. The survey counted 21 bird species and 11 species of mammal.”
3. “…unregulated livestock grazing and [on vegetation] endanger the landscape.”
NOTES:
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CONSIDER Jeremiah 51:62 (below--one verse, three unfulfilled prophecies)
...and say, 'Thou, O LORD, hast promised concerning this place to cut it off, so that there will be nothing dwelling in it, whether
man (See the "Babylon Timeline Of Inhabitants")
or beast, ["I was so excited on one trip there (Charles Pack made 3 trips to Babylon) as I was chasing dogs and cats and donkeys and taking their pictures. People thought, 'This crazy American! Don't they have animals like that over there?' But you see, I was in Babylon. The Bible says when it is destroyed there will not be any beasts there. I have seen all kinds of beasts--cats, dogs, donkeys--inside the old city of Babylon."
Charles Pack, Understanding Revelation, Book 11, Thy Kingdom Come Telecast, Tulsa, OK, 1980, p.27.]
"but it will be a perpetual desolation.' ["...date-groves, and gardens, are found still on the very site of ancient Babylon....The gardens...on both sides of the river are very extensive, so that the town itself from a little distance, appears embosomed in a wood of date trees, The air is salubrious, and the soil extremely fertile, producing great quantities of rice, dates, and grain of different kinds....luxuriant cultivation."
Benjamin Wills Newton, Babylon: Its Revival And Final Desolation, Houlston & Wright, 1859, p. 39-41.]
Since central Babylon has never been deep-plowed for farming, undisturbed archaeological deposits are often at or near the surface. [But even the pictures of the surroundings of the central-Babylon archaeological site show dense and rich vegetation, see photos above]
BABYLON MODERN SITE DAMAGE REPORT damage assessments carried out between 2004 and 2009
https://eca.state.gov/files/bureau/babylondamagereport.pdf
Here [Amran] a high mud wall called a Tof surrounds the palm gardens of the [ARAB] village Djumdjumma [on Babylon site]... there are ruins of dwelling-houses.
Robert Koldewey, The Excavations At Babylon, translated by Agnes S. Johns, MacMillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin's Street, London, 1914, p.223.
The walk from Babil to Kasr along the river-bank takes one entirely among characteristic Babylonian scenery. Gardens, palms, and fields are sometimes all grouped together, forming a scene of rich luxuriance.
Robert Koldewey, The Excavations At Babylon, translated by Agnes S. Johns, MacMillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin's Street, London, 1914, p.19.
The following 3 quotes are from the on-site exploration of Babylon by the great Assyrian-ruins archaeologist Austen Henry Layard, circa 1853...
Title: Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon
Author: Austen H. Layard
NEW-YORK: G. P. PUTNAM & CO., 10 PARK PLACE. 1853.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39897/39897-h/39897-h.htm#fna_203
A few black tents and flocks of sheep and camels were scattered over the yellow plain. They belonged chiefly to the Zobeide, an ancient tribe, renowned in the history of the conquering Arabs under their first caliphs, and now pasturing their flocks in the wilds of Babylonia. From Amran, the last of the great mounds, a broad and well-trodden track winds through thick groves of palms. (p. 390-91
Hillah ["Amidst the heaps that marked the site of Babylon herself there rose the small town of Hillah", Layard's journal, 1853, p.428] may contain about eight or nine thousand inhabitants. The Euphrates flows through the town, and is about two hundred yards wide and fifteen feet deep... Around the town, and above and below it for some miles, are groves of palm trees, forming a broad belt on both sides of the river. In the plain beyond them a few canals bear water to plots cultivated with wheat, barley and rice. (p. 395
...a line of earthen ramparts, which are generally believed to be the most northern remains of the ancient city of Babylon. From their summit the traveler scans a boundless plain, through which winds the Euphrates, with its dark belt of evergreen palms. Rising in the distance... is the first great ruin to the east of the river, and the Arab, as I have said, names it “Babel.” (p. 397
[Ancient] Babylon was the center of an urbanized, agriculture-based state whose rulers diverted the Euphrates River into a network of man-made canals to maximize cultivation of the rich alluvial plain. Farming, using these traditional irrigation techniques, remains a principal occupation of the area.
Site Management Plan, Babylon Cultural Landscape and Archaeological City, Executive Summary, World Monuments Fund, 2015, New York, NY, p.10.
https://www.wmf.org/sites/default/files/article/pdfs/babylon-site-management-plan-excerpt.pdf
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Thus a town of considerable population, villages, date-groves, and gardens, are found still on the very site of ancient Babylon. Is this the "utter desolation" of which the Prophets speak? Can it be said that "her LAND has been made desolate, and none shall dwell therein; they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast"? Can this be said to be fulfilled, when not only the Land, but even the site of the city itself is still occupied?
The denunciations against the LAND of Babylon, it must be remembered, are as severe as those against the city. (Jer. 1:1; 25:12;51:2; 51:29; 51:43).
Benjamin Wills Newton, Babylon: Its Revival And Final Desolation, Houlston & Wright, 1859, p. 39-40.
General Chesney adds, "There is a fine farm just beyond the great ruins. This is tilled by people from Hillah, and a part of it is, I think, within the most extended limits of the ancient city, north-east of Hillah. There is also cultivation about the same distance on the eastern side of the river."
Benjamin Wills Newton, Babylon: Its Revival And Final Desolation, Houlston & Wright, 1859, p. 42.
"...the buildings of Babylon...together with several gardens and date plantations within the limits of the ruins..."
Benjamin Wills Newton, (quoting a letter to the author from a man from India who had visited Babylon) Babylon: Its Revival And Final Desolation, Houlston & Wright, 1859, p. 44-45.
"Parks scattered throughout the city. These include the so-called "Pavilions Park" located in the center of the city, near the inner wall and near the Temple of Nanmakh, in addition to parks located in the area of the presidential palace".
Report on the Damage to the Site of Babylon, Iraq, Iraqi final report, p. 4 and fig. 20.