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The Shepherds of Babylon
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Isaiah 13:20
THIS PROPHECY HAS NEVER BEEN FULFILLED!
(therefore, Babylon must Rise Again)
PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF below
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LEFT:
Shepherds at Babylon, 1914(the actual photo-documentation below)
Date taken: March - April 1914
Photographer: Gertrude Bell ["Queen Of The Desert"]
Location: Babylon - Iraq
Modern location: Babylon
Description: Babylon Shepherd children by Euphrates
RIGHT:
Babylon Shepherd Boys
and their Sheep, 1914
Album Y 1913-1914 - Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq
Date taken: March - April 1914
Photographer: Gertrude Bell ["Queen Of The Desert"]
Location: Babylon - Iraq
Modern location: Babylon
Size: 17.3/11.3
Condition: Good
Subject date:
Description: [Shepherd children beside Euphrates]
(note the sheep facing the other way behind the trees)
RIGHT: Walter Andrae
Walter Andrae was an archaeologist, architect, and artist of exceptional observational skill to detail and relationship. He was the documenting associate of German archaeologist Robert Koldewey, whose outstanding work at scientifically unearthing the remains of Babylon (1898-1915) remains the authoritative source today.
Andrae was responsible for the detailed and accurate layout-sketches of the Koldewey-maps of Babylon. He used those same skills as an artist in depicting the next best thing to an actual photograph-- an eye for detail and accuracy in his paintings of Babylon. What one sees in the paintings and watercolors is what one would see if there in person at that time.
BELOW: With this in mind we see below what Andrae and others there at the time saw-- a Shepherd with his Sheep at Babylon. Note the growth of pasture land, and the tel-mound (probably Babil Mound) with workers or visitors standing on top, in the background.
FLOCKS OF SHEEP 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)
RIGHT:
Babylon widows and orphans-- with their SHEEP-- at Babylon in 2016. They certainly qualify as SHEPHERDS at Babylon.
Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.Isaiah 13:20
LEFT:
More pictures of the widow and orphan Shepherds in the fields at Babylon.
They appear to be in the area of the pastures surrounding one of the several Arab towns that are located within the wider Babylon archaeological site.
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NOTES
Shepherds and their sheep were photographed by Gertrude Bell ("Queen Of The Desert") in her 1914 trip to visit the work of German archaeologist Robert Koldewey at Babylon. (see the photos at top of page). For more about this remarkable woman, her explorations and government work, and especially, for this study, her PHOTOGRAPHS of Babylon in 1914 (and even earlier) SEE HERE...
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.
Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, p. 390-91.
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