16 2500 YEAR TIMELINE

...

BABYLON Inhabited

on a 2500-year Timeline

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BABYLON 2500-year TIMELINE OF INHABITANTS

(more extensive notes follow at end)

539 BC #1
Babylon captured by Persians but not destroyed; key Persian city for many years

522=486 BC #2
Persian King Darius builds his palace at Babylon.

482 BC #3
Babylon revolted and Persian king Xerxes I destroyed Babylon's fortifications and the temples fell into disuse.

482-331 #4
Still, Babylon continued to flourish within the Persian Empire.

331 BC #5
Alexander the Great's plan for Babylon to become his empire-capital was cut short by his death at Babylon in 323 BC, but building projects were completed.

323 BC #6
Babylon lost its prestige with the Seleucid kings that followed Alexander.

305 BC #7
Babylon's prestige reduced by founding of the new city, Seleucia.

274 BC #8
Antiochus I made Seleucia the Royal City and ordered that the civilian population of Babylon be moved there. Still, a remnant of people still inhabited Babylon.

225-223 B.C #9
Regular offerings were still made to Babylonian gods in their own shrines at Babylon.

175-164 B.C #10
Babylon received a gymnasium and Greek theatre, later enlarged by the Parthians.

126 BC #11
Ctesiphon became the political center, Seleucia remained the business and trading center, and Babylon continued as the religious center of Mesopotamia.

93 BC #12
The religious functions of Esagila, the Marduc Temple at Babylon, and a college of priests were still used for religious services.

40 BC #13
Jewish high priest Hyrcanus was taken captive to Babylon where there were "great numbers" of Jews.

24 BC #14
As the first century AD approached Babylon still had inhabitants, though Greek historian Strabo referred to it as "empty and desolate for the most part."

Late 1st century BC #15
Greek historian Diodorus Siculus indicated that only a small area of the city was still inhabited.

...it is known that Babylon existed in the first century as a small town on the Euphrates...the context of [1 Peter] 5:13 is not at all figurative or cryptic. (NIV Study Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers, Grand Rapids, MI, 1985, (1 Peter Introduction), p. 1887)

AD 23-79 #16
Pliny (AD 23-79) suggested that Esagila [Marduc Temple at Babylon] was still in existence. Some of the Jews from Mesopotamia who were in Jerusalem on the Day Of Pentecost "undoubtedly lived in Babylon."

63 AD #17
Peter the Apostle wrote 1st Peter from Babylon

115 or 116 AD #18
...the Roman Emperor Trajan wintered in Babylon during his campaign against the
Parthians,where he found "mounds and stones and ruins.",

Mid second century AD #19
Greek geographer Pausanias writes that the temple of Bel (Marduk) and the walls were still standing, though most of the city was abandoned."

A.D. 164 #20
Avidius Cassius burned the city

198 AD #21
Roman Emperor Septimius Severus found Babylon "completely abandoned" on his Parthian campaign.

200 AD #22
According to Roman Emperor Septimius Severus Babylon was deserted by AD 200, and was virtually lost until the 17th century, having been gradually buried beneath the sand.

227 AD #23
Parthia fell to Sassanian domination, but traces of the Parthian occupation have been found in the excavations of Babylon.

226-636 AD #24
People were still living on the debris of the ancient palaces.

500 AD #25
Babylonian Talmud, commentary on the Jewish law, was created by Jews in Babylon.

800-1200 AD #26
Only huts were left at Babylon, a condition that until the 12th century AD.

10th century AD #27
Hawkal, an Islamic geographer, noted, "Babel is a small village...and ruins of great edifices still remain."

1160 AD #28
Benjamin Bar Joanna reported ten thousand Jews living in the village of Al Hillah [within the coordinates of] Babylon and an active "Synagogue of Daniel" in Babylon.

1616 AD #29
Pietro della Valle noted the existance of "villagers" who were mining and selling Babylon's kiln-fired bricks.

1765 AD #30
Karsten Niebuhr found inscribed bricks at the mounds at Hillah, part of Babylon.

1780 and 1790 AD #31
Joseph de Beauchamp conducted early small excavations of the site, where he collected inscribed bricks, as did the workers.

1811-12, 1817 AD #32
C. J. Rich made the first accurate plan of the site of Babylon, and noted the removal of its bricks had taken a heavy toll on the archaeological site.

early 1800s AD #33
Thomas Maurice, a contemporary of Rich, lamented that the famous ancient walls of Babylon still remained a mystery.

first half 1800s AD #34
Several minor explorations of Babylon including mapping by Robert Ker Porter.

1827 AD #35
James S. Buckingham and Mellino made more surface explorations of Babylon.

1829 AD #36
British Captain Robert Mignan created the best early map, noting the habitation of Babylon by several Arab villages.

1846 AD #37
Henry Creswicke Rawlinson provided valuable research of the inscriptions of Babylon.

1850 AD #38
Henry Austen Layard after a short period abandoned his research of Babylon.

1852-54 AD #39
Fulgence Fresnel, Jules Oppert and Felix Thomas made the first systematic
excavations and published the first detailed map of Babylon and discovered the Persian (Elamite) inscriptions.

1879 AD #40
Hormuzd Rassam recovered the famous Cyrus Cylinder (giving Cyrus' account of his conquest of Babylon).

Latter part 1800's AD #41
The plundering Babylon's baked bricks continued.

1897-98 AD #42
E. Sachau conducted minor excavations.

1899-1917 AD #43
For nearly 18 years the German archaeologist Robert Koldewey carried out his archaeological work at Babylon with very little interruption. The immensity of the ancient city was discovered. A great quantity of the bricks had already been removed and used elsewhere for building material. Koldewey’s excavations at Babylon were nevertheless highly successful, and stand as one of the great archaeological achievements of all time.

1912 AD #44
Robert Koldewey, German archaeologist, reports 4 Arabs villages located at Babylon.

1955-1968 AD #45
The Iraq Department of Antiquities began a touristic rebuilding process with the Arab village of Djumdjummah still located at Babylon.

1956 AD #46
German archaeologist Heinrich J. Lenzen studied the Greek theatre at Babylon.

1966 AD #47
H. J. Schmidt did specific site research of Babylon.

1978 AD #48
In 1979 the Iraq Antiquities Department began a major excavation and restoration project in Babylon.

1987 AD #49
Charles Dyer reported that he had personally seen the [Arab] village of Kweiresh in 1987 during a trip to Babylon.

2001 AD #50
By 2001 the Iraqi government had raised up a seminal tourist reconstruction of Babylon using original Babylon-bricks as the foundation.

2011 AD #51
Iraqi Babylon-Project Director Roberto Parapetti affirmed that inhabitants live inside the boundaries of ancient Babylon's old city walls.

2015 AD #52
There are TODAY "500 privately owned plots" within & along the walls of Babylon’s boundaries, with a population of more than 11,000 INHABITANTS. The Arab Villages of Sinjar, Zwair, Kweiresh, and JumJumah lie largely within Babylon.
World Monuments Fund Site Management Plan, 2015, p. 51-58

BELOW: More extensive NOTES DETAILED to the 2500-year TIMELINE OF INHABITANTS (keyed to the DATES ABOVE & the #s below, example= #51

back to Babylon To Be Rebuilt

back to Photographic Proof of Babylon Inhabitants

1. 539 BC

... the Babylonians were defeated by the armies of Cyrus the Great, king of the Persians and Medes. The city of Babylon itself was not destroyed on that occasion in 539 BC, and in fact it continued to thrive and remain a key city of the Persian Empire for many years. It even became the richest satrapy in the empire and was regarded by Herodotus as the world's most splendid city.2
Dr. J. Paul Tanner, Daniel: Introduction Archaeol. Rediscovery of Babylon
May 14, 2002 App. P.1, Ancient Babylon: From Gradual Demise To Archaeological Rediscovery
http://paultanner.org/English%20Docs/Daniel/Introductory/App%20P%20-%20Archaeological%20Backgrd.pdf

One might say that the city was taken without a fight...Thus Babylon the Great fell in a peaceful manner...

Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands A Verdict, Here's Life Publishers, Inc., San Bernardino, CA,, 1979, p.304.

2. 522- 486 BC
Under the Persian King Darius, it even received some improvements. Georges Roux notes, "In Babylon, his winter residence, Darius built an arsenal, a palace for the crown prince and an apadana (i.e. a hall supported by columns, in the Persian
style) for his own palace."3
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

3. 482 BC
Babylon revolted against the Persian king Xerxes I. This led to the destruction of
Babylon's fortifications and temples, as well as the melting down of the golden image of Babylon's primary deity, Marduk. Oates writes, Classical authors describe Xerxes' capture of the rebellious city after several months' siege, and
state that it was then sacked, its fortifications demolished; the great temple of Marduk [Esaliga-- Marduc Temple at Babylon] and others were burnt to the ground and the statue of Marduk carried away as a spoil of war.
Xerxes dealt severely with the Babylonians: the satrapy was abolished and incorporated with that of Assyria, the portions to the west being made into a separate unit. Great estates were confiscated and handed over to the Persians, and henceforth the country was ferociously taxed.4
The matter of the temples being destroyed, however, is subject to debate. Georges Roux writes, "Since Esagila [Marduc Temple at Babylon] and other sanctuaries are mentioned in later texts, it is probable that they fell into ruin
through lack of maintenance in the course of the following centuries rather than through violent destruction."5
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

4. 400s BC
Despite the setback by Xerxes I, Babylon continued to flourish within the Persian Empire until...
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

On the eastern slope [near Djumdjumma] some excavations undertaken by us yielded dated business tablets of the time of the Persian kings.
Robert Koldewey, The Excavations At Babylon, translated by Agnes S. Johns, MacMillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin's Street, London, 1914, p.223.

In AD 363, the Emperor Julian engaged in war with the Sassanian rulers of Persia and during one campaign destroyed the walls of Babylon which had been partially restored by the Sassanians who used the enclosed area as a hunting preserve. [Despite this statement, McDowell doesn't accept the revival of original Babylon at the End Time]

Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands A Verdict, Here's Life Publishers, Inc., San Bernardino, CA,, 1979, p.304.

5. 331 BC
Alexander the Great …wanted Babylon to become the capital of his new empire [His plans were cut short by his death in Babylon in 323 BC]...There was a Greek-Macedonian presence in Babylon ...a...well preserved theatre in the area...as well as a gymnasium
and an agora…
"Babylon“, Gwendolyn Leick, Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City, London, Penguin Books.,2001-02, pp. 271-274.

6. 323 BC
As a result of Alexander's untimely death, Babylon effectively saw the end of its role as a capital city. Babylon lost its prestige with the Seleucid kings that followed Alexander.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

7. 305 BC
Babylon's prestige was significantly reduced when Seleucus ordered the founding of a new city, Seleucia-on the-Tigris
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

8. 274 BC
Antiochus I (281-261 BC), the successor to Seleucus, made Seleucia the Royal City about 275 or 274 BC, and then ordered that the civilian population of Babylon be moved there. Although a remnant of people still inhabited the ancient site of Babylon, the city's importance never recovered from this act. [But human activity continued at Babylon since] efforts were made by the Macedonian rulers to revive the half-ruined city....Antiochus I calls himself 'provider of Esagila [Marduc Temple at Babylon] ...
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

9. 225-223 B.C
Seleucus III (225-223 B.C.) shows that regular offerings were still made to
a number of Babylonian gods in their own shrines. Remains of Hellenistic architecture were discovered on the mound of Bâbil and on the site of Nebuchadnezzar's palace.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

10. 175-164 B.C
Antiochus IV (175-164 B.C.) – the king who did the most to propagate the Greek culture –Babylon received a gymnasium and a remarkable Greek theatre ["suggesting a sizable population", Dyer, p.125] , later enlarged by the Parthians.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

[A temple of Zeus at Babylon] must have remained open as late as the Seleucid period...
Robert Koldewey, The Excavations At Babylon, translated by Agnes S. Johns, MacMillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin's Street, London, 1914, p.212.

Thus the pillared buildings of Amran (p. 215 et seq.) and houses at Merkes, that are built of brick rubble, belong either to the Greek (331-139 B.C.) or the Parthian (139 B.C.-226 A.D.) periods...
Robert Koldewey, The Excavations At Babylon, translated by Agnes S. Johns, MacMillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin's Street, London, 1914, p.310.

Female figures [statuettes]...belong exclusively to the Greek and Parthian periods.
Robert Koldewey, The Excavations At Babylon, translated by Agnes S. Johns, MacMillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin's Street, London, 1914, p. 284-85.

The graves [at the Merkes House site at Babylon] are chiefly of brick, as they are exclusively of the Parthian period...
Robert Koldewey, The Excavations At Babylon, translated by Agnes S. Johns, MacMillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin's Street, London, 1914, p.290.

11. 126 BC
After the Parthians conquered Babylonia in 126 BC, the Seleucid kingdom was greatly reduced.11 At that time, Artabanus II assumed control over the Tigris-Euphrates valley, and Babylon remained under Parthian control for quite some time (except for two brief periods of Roman occupation, Trajan and Severus)...
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon
Ctesiphon became the political center, Seleucia remained the business and trading center, and Babylon continued as the religious center of Mesopotamia.
Charles H. Dyer, The Rise Of Babylon, 1991, Tyndale House, Wheaton, IL,p.126.

12, 93 BC
Oates reports that the religious functions of Esagila [Marduc Temple at Babylon] and a college of priests (the 'Anu-Enlil priesthood')
were still operative late in the Seleucid period. Furthermore, "A text of 93 BC reveals that at least parts of
Esagila [Marduc Temple at Babylon] were at that time still used for religious services"
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

13. 40 BC
Jewish high priest Hyrcanus was taken captive by the king of Parthia, who later “set him free from his bonds, and gave him a habitation at Babylon, where there were Jews in great numbers”

Josephus, Antiquities Of The Jews, 15.2.2.

14. 24 BC
There was some continuance of a Babylonian city and people even until the first century AD, though of very little importance...Strabo (a Greek geographer and historian writing about 24 BC) described Babylon as empty and desolate for the most part.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

15. Late in the 1st century BC
Diodorus Siculus (80 BC – ca. 15 BC), a Greek historian who authored the
universal history Bibliotheca historica late in the 1st century BC, indicated that Esagila [Marduc Temple at Babylon] along with the royal palaces had sunk into ruins and that only a small area of the city was still inhabited.

17. 63 AD
PETER IN BABYLON wrote 1st Peter: “The place of writing was Babylon. Some feel that the mention of Babylon in this epistle is a symbol for Rome, but there is no reason to ignore the literal interpretation of this word. At this point in time, Babylonia was the center of Judaism outside the Land; it is also the place where the Babylonian Talmud developed. And, since Peter was the Apostle to the Circumcision, it makes perfect sense that he would have traveled to Babylon after he left the Land. He literally wrote the letter from Babylon, the center of Judaism outside the Land.
Arnold Fruchtenbaum, 2 Peter, Ariel’s Bible Commentary, The Messianic Jewish Epistles, Ariel Ministries, 2005, p.384. 1320/384

18. 115 or 116 AD
...the Roman Emperor Trajan wintered in Babylon during his campaign against the
Parthians, though he found little there except for "mounds and stones and ruins.",
[Trajan occupied Babylon briefly taking control of it from the Parthians. Yet, below in AD 227, "traces of the Parthian occupation have been found in the excavations of Babylon", and since the Romans were only brief interlopers in the Parthian control of Babylon, then Babylon was inhabited by Parthians; my deduction]
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

19. Mid second century AD
...Dyer, however, reports that Pausanias had written that the temple of Bel (Marduk) and the walls were still standing, though most of the city was abandoned."
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

20. A.D. 164
Avidius Cassius burned the city
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

21. 198
Septimius Severus passed through the region on his Parthian campaign of 198 the site was completely abandoned" [Yet, below in AD 227, "traces of the Parthian occupation have been found in the excavations of Babylon", and the Romans were only brief interlopers in the Parthian control of Babylon]
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon; (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed., The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1979-1988)

22. 200 AD
According to Septimius Severus (Roman Emperor from AD 193–211), the site was deserted by AD 200. Subsequently, the site of Babylon remained virtually
lost until the 17th century, having been gradually buried beneath the sand of the desert and the silt of the valley.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

23. 227 AD
The Parthian kingdom finally fell under Sassanian domination...traces of the Parthian occupation have been found in the excavations of Babylon (as well as numerous other sites in southern Iraq).
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

24. 226-636 AD
... people were still living on the debris of the ancient palaces.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

25. 500 AD
Babylonian Talmud, commentary on the Jewish law, was created by Jews in Babylon.
[Nehardea Jewish Babylonia academy Nehardea's location inside Iraq
Coordinates: 33°25'11?N 43°18'45?E
This was the synagogue called "Shaf we-Yatib," to which there are several references dating from the third and fourth centuries.
Two sentences in which Nahman designates Nehardea as "Babel" have been handed down ... Sheshet also dwelt there temporarily (Ned. 78a). According to a statement dating from the 4th century, an amora heard in Nehardea certain tannaitic sentences which had until then been unknown to scholars... Nehardea always remained the residence of a certain number of learned men, ... About the middle of the 4th century the famous scholar ?ama was living at Nehardea; ...
Toward the end of the 4th and at the beginning of the 5th century Nehardea again became a center of Babylonian Judaism
Other scholars of the 4th and 5th centuries who are mentioned in the Talmud as natives of Nehardea are [lists 5]
Mar R. ?anina is mentioned, among the earliest geonim of Pumbedita, as residing at Nehardea at the time of Muhammad. This is the last reference in Jewish history to Nehardea.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/47713/Babylonian-Talmud
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Talmud
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehardea

26. 800-1200 AD 25
By the Arabic Middle Ages nothing but huts were left at Babylon, a condition that continued until the twelfth century of our era."
p. 297. C.W. Ceram. Gods, Graves and Scholars, The Story of Archaeology. New York. Alfred A. Knopf. 1951, 1961.

[In layers considerably later than the Seleucid period] mud-brick houses begin once more...until [in the higher parts] they almost entirely disappear. The upper layer certainly contains traces of habitation, and among them many Arabic glazed sherds...the Babylon of that period, whose inhabited area was confined to this mound, must have presented a somewhat miserable aspect. As Hilleh was founded in the eleventh century A.D., we may assume that Babylon ceased to be inhabited at that time.
Robert Koldewey, The Excavations At Babylon, translated by Agnes S. Johns, MacMillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin's Street, London, 1914, p.212.

942 AD—Saadya Gaon, an Egyptian who translated the Pentateuch from Hebrew into Arabic, "died in Babylon in 942."

"The Origin Of The Bible", Phillip Wesley Comfort, ed., Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL,, 1992, "Versions Of The Bible", Victor Walter, p. 307.

27. 10th century AD
Hawkal, an Islamic geographer, was one of the first to "rediscover" the
ancient site of Babylon and describe its remains. He noted, "Babel is a small village, but the most ancient in all Irak. The whole region is denominated Babel from this place. The kings of Canaan [he means Chaldea] resided there; and ruins of great edifices still remain.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

28. 1160 AD
Benjamin Bar Joanna, a learned Jewish merchant of Tudela Aragon, Spain, reported that ten thousand Jews lived in the village of Al Hillah six miles from Babylon; second, he noted that the Jews had an active "Synagogue of Daniel" in Babylon one mile from the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's temple, probably the temple of Marduk.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

29. 1616 AD
Pietro della Valle correctly identified the site of Bâbil ...He noted that villagers were mining and selling Babylon's kiln-fired bricks...
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

30. 1765 AD
Karsten Niebuhr found numerous inscribed bricks lying around the great mounds at Hillah on the Euphrates, he deduced that the site was probably Babylon itself.

31. 1780 and 1790
Joseph de Beauchamp (a distinguished French abbé and astronomer) was
the papal vicar-general at Baghdad. During the years 1780 and 1790, he made visits to the ruins of Babylon and conducted what is believed to be the first minor excavations of the site...He collected inscribed bricks...For the abbé was told by the workmen who were employed to dig for bricks in the Hillah
mound that they had found large, thick walls and rooms...[but the workers] simply wanted the hard, kiln-baked bricks...
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon
26 Wellard, By the Waters of Babylon, 23.

32. 1811-12, 1817 AD
By the time of C. J. Rich [early 1800s], this practice of carting off the bricks had taken a heavy toll on the archaeological site. Regarding the mound of Amran which included Esagila [Temple of Babylonian Marduc], Rich wrote, ". . . the greatest supplies have been and are now constantly drawn from it, they appear still to be abundant. But the operation of extracting the bricks has caused great confusion... made the first accurate plan of the site of Babylon (which was published in 1815).

33. early 1800s
Thomas Maurice, a contemporary of Rich, lamented that the famous ancient walls of Babylon still remained a mystery: . . . although we have doubtless ascertained the site, and from evidence both external and internal, many of the public edifices of Babylon; yet the actual extent of the circumference of that great city, from the varying accounts of the ancient historians, remains still disputable, and must ever do so, unless the vestiges of its vast walls shall hereafter be accurately traced by still more assiduous local research. 27
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

34. First half 1800s
Following the research of C. J. Rich, there were several minor explorations at the Babylon site in the first half of the 19th century. Robert Ker Porter, an English painter, mapped the ruins of Babylon in 1818, recorded his impressions, and illustrated them with romantic views of the ruins.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

35. 1827
James S. Buckingham and Mellino made further surface explorations of the site.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

36. 1829
Robert Mignan made soundings of the site. He cut a shaft into the site and removed a number of clay tablets, as well as an inscribed clay cylinder in situ. [Mignan created the best early map, noting the habitation of Babylon by several Arab villages].
Arab villages, map, "Ground Plans of the Remains at & near Babylon", Captain R. Mignan; Description: English: Map of the site of Babylon prior to its excavation later in the 19th century; Date October 1829; Source Ground Plan of the Remains at & near Babylon. In Travels in Chaldaea, including a journey from Bussorah to Bagdad, Hillah, and Babylon, performed on foot in 1827, published by Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, London, 1829; Author Captain Robert Mignan (d. 1852);
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Babylon_1829.jpg

37. 1850-54
Henry Creswicke Rawlinson made some significant contributions to the decipherment of the Akkadian language utilized by the Babylonians—an achievement which would prove invaluable for archaeologists after him...
27 Maurice, Observations, 30.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

38. 1850
Henry Austen Layard [Father of Assyriology]...Layard was able to take soundings at Babylon...but soon concluded that the place was not worth his time.
28 Saggs, Babylonians, 15.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

39. 1852-54 AD
Fulgence Fresnel, Jules Oppert and Felix Thomas made the first systematic
excavations of Babylon in July-Nov of 1852. 29 ...[and] published the first
relatively detailed map of Babylon....[and discovered] that the third language of the Behistun inscription was Elamite [Persian].
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

40. 1879 AD
Hormuzd Rassam...a native Christian from Mosul [Ninevah, himself a famous associate of Layard]... unearthed a large collection of business
documents of the house of Egibi and the famous Cyrus Cylinder
(giving Cyrus' account of his conquest of Babylon).
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon.

41. Latter part 1800's AD
The plundering of the ruins of Babylon continued to increase; in addition to the baked bricks, the locals also took stone monuments, which they burned for gypsum . . . . The destruction of the ruins did not end, . . . , and many important buildings were so thoroughly destroyed it was later impossible to identify their ground plans.
30 Klengel-Brandt, 252.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

42. 1897-98 AD
E. Sachau (minor excavations)
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

43. 1899-1917 AD
For nearly 18 years [Robert Koldewey, German archaeologist] carried out his archaeological work at Babylon with very little interruption...[he recovered] Ishtar gate in 1902...The outer walls of the temple of Esagila [Marduc god] were identified during ... 1910-1911...eight major city gates [dedicated to deities...the summer palace of Nebuchadnezzar.. the remains of the fabled Babylonian]....the immensity of the ancient city that had to be considered, and the mounds themselves were widely scattered.35 Joan Oates has pointed out that the ruins of Babylon extend over an area of some 850 hectares and constitute the largest ancient settlement in Mesopotamia.36 By way of comparison, greater Nineveh is about 750 hectares, and the mound of Ur only 55.... A great quantity of the bricks had already been removed and used elsewhere for building material before the archaeologists even arrived....Koldewey’s excavations at Babylon were nevertheless highly successful, and stand as one of the great archaeological achievements of all time.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon
31 "Koldewey, Robert" Encyclopædia Britannica Online. <http://www.eb.com:180/bol/topic?idxref=
254430> [Accessed 12 December 1999].
32 André Parrot, Babylon and the Old Testament, trans. B. E. Hooke (New York: Philosophical Library,
Inc., 1958), 21.
33 Albert Campdor, Babylon, trans. and adapted by Elsa Coult (New York: Putnam, 1958), 145.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

There is evidence that Babylon was still inhabited as of the early 1900s. Even today there are occupied villages within the walls of ancient Babylon... we must conclude that John's Babylon [Revelation 17-18] is the literal city of Babylon on the Euphrates, the same Babylon of which Jeremiah spoke.

Ron Rhodes, New Babylon Rising, Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR, 2019, p. 67.

People continued to live in the city for over a millennium after the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Even in modern times, Arabs have pitched their tents in the city.

Mark Hitchcock, The Second Coming Of Babylon, Multnomah Publishers, Sistera, OR, 2003, p. 85.

44. 1912 AD
Robert Koldewey, German archaeologist, reports 4 Arabs villages located at Babylon.
p. 13. cf. map titled "Babylon." Barthel Hrouda. Robert Koldewey, Das wieder erstehende Babylon. Verlag C. H. Beck. Munchen. 1990. ISBN 3-406-31674-3.

45. 1955-1968 AD
the Iraq Department of Antiquities carried out further clearances... restoring the Emakh temple.. the Ishtar Gate, the Processional Way and the palace complex. ... built a half-size model of the complete Ishtar Gate... palace of Nebuchadnezzar with its massive throne room (some 180 ft. x 197 ft.)... A museum and rest house have been built on the site, which is also partially covered by the [Arab] village of Djumdjummah at the southern end.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

46, 1956 AD
Under Heinrich J. Lenzen, the German Archaeological Institute conducted
further brief investigations... at the Greek theatre.40
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

47. 1966 AD
H. J. Schmidt carried out investigations at the site of Etemenanki.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

48. 1978 AD
On the government’s recommendation, in 1979 the Antiquities Department began a major excavation and restoration project in Babylon...
Iraq Antiquities Department, “Babylon Revival” Project: Improvement of the Babylon Site: Babylon;", Director: Roberto Parapetti

49. 1987 AD
Charles Dyer reported that he had personally seen the [Arab] village of Kweiresh in 1987 during a trip to Babylon. At that time, "it was located next to the reconstruction of Nebuchadnezzar's southern palace and just north of the Saddam Hussein Guest House"
Charles H. Dyer, The Rise Of Babylon, 1991, Tyndale House, Wheaton, IL,p.130.

50. 2001 AD
In May of 2001, when this writer [Dr. J. Paul Tanner] last visited the site of Babylon, the Iraqi government was working diligently to reconstruct many of the walls and ancient buildings, and in other ways to make the site accessible to visitors wishing to stroll through these pathways of old.
Tanner, Rediscovery of Babylon

51. 2011 AD
Another of the more dire threats to the site has been unchecked development inside the boundaries of the old city walls, enclosing nearly three square miles... causing trepidation among Iraqis who live along them now.
Project: Improvement of the Babylon Site: Babylon; Director: Roberto Parapetti

52. 2015 AD
The following Arab Villages trace their Habitation of Babylon to antiquity; they were on-site when the earliest European explorers arrived, & TODAY they continue to build and inhabit Babylon to the extent that they are now viewed as suburbs of Hillah & are within both Babylon & the legal municipality of Hillah

“more than 500 privately owned plots within Babylon’s boundaries “ p. 51-53

“…private land use within and adjacent to Babylon.” p. 72-73

“…Villagers with extended families holding farmland inside the site.” p. 72-73

“People living and farming within the site boundary...” p. 72-73

“Annanah – [Arab Village bordering the Grounds of Babylon] Population: 8,000...“…unregulated livestock grazing …endanger the landscape.” p. 54-58

“Sinjar and Zwair – Arab Village on the Grounds of Babylon; Population: 5,300" p. 54-58

“Al-Jimjmah – Arab Village on the Grounds of Babylon; Population: 2,500 in the north and 2,800 in the south section… Comprised of about 500 houses…“ p. 54-58

“Several [Al-Jimjma] residents own plots inside Babylon where farming is forbidden, and still graze livestock on these properties.“ p. 54-58

“…clan sheikhs and farmers owning property inside the site...” p. 71

“Free-ranging livestock (belonging to landowners within the site boundaries) tramples archaeological remains.” p. 69

"SBAH (State Board of Antiquities and Heritage) cannot acquire some important portions of the archaeological site, for instance the privately owned land partially surrounding Etemenanki ziggurat [Tower of Babel]." p. 58, Adobe navigation plane

“At Zwair (Located within the site boundaries west of the Shatt al-Hillah) houses are under construction on the riverbank facing the central archaeological area.“ p. 54-58

"the Antiquity and Heritage Police that maintains a permanent presence at Babylon." p. 17

World Monuments Fund Site Management Plan, 2015, (page numbers noted), 350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2412, New York, New York 10118; in cooperation with the Iraqi Antiquities Dept.; World Heritage List; United Nations UNESCO; United States State Department.

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