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Secret Gardens of Turkei and Traditional Harran Houses, Türkiye'nin Gizli Bahçeleri ve Geleneksel Harran Yöresel Evleri (Kubbe Evler). Harran, Şanlıurfa Province, TURKEI. OneTurkei Photo Album - Candidate Photographs
NATIONAL SUGRAPHIC Always Under The Light Of Your ❤ Masters of the Art - SANATIN USTALARI. COPYRIGHT OWNER © 2013 All Rights Reserved Ayhan ÇAKAR. Please contact photograph artist to use this photo. When the album is completed, a portion of the revenues will be donated to Social Welfare Institutions. Please Pluse and Share!
Harran (Turkish: Harran, Ottoman Turkish: حران,) was a major ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia whose site is near the modern village of Altınbaşak, Turkei, 44 kilometers southeast of Şanlıurfa.
Cityscape scenery Hagia Sophia, Şehir manzarası Ayasofya. Yavuz Selim, Fatih District, Istanbul, Turkei. One1stanbul Photo Album - Candidate Photographs. NATIONAL SUGRAPHIC Always Under The Light Of Your ❤ Masters of the Art - SANATIN USTALARI
Please contact Mr. ÇAKAR to use this photo. COPYRIGHT OWNER © 2014 All Rights Reserved Ayhan ÇAKAR. Please contact photograph artist to use this photo. When the album is completed, a portion of the revenues will be donated to Social Welfare Institutions. Please Pluse and Share!
Krak des Chevaliers - wikipedia - Qal’at Salah El-Din
Il Krak des Chevaliers domina il passo, strategicamente determinante, che divide il Mediterraneo dalle città dell’entroterra mediorientale di Homs e Hama, e sorge sulle rive del fiume Oronte.
Noto fra gli Arabi con il nome di Hisn al Akrad, o Fortezza dei Curdi, venne costruito sulle fondamenta di un preesistente castello mussulmano.
Arroccato su di una montagna costantemente sconvolta e modellata dai venti e che strapiomba vertiginosamente su tre lati, il Krak, sia per il suo modello costruttivo, sia per la particolare collocazione geografica scelta per la sua ubicazione, per lungo tempo fu il più inespugnabile dei castelli crociati in Terra Santa.
E non possiamo non dare una prima menzione delle meravigliose architetture che lo compongono, se non attraverso gli occhi di un giovane studioso dei primi del ‘900, T.E. Lawrence, meglio noto come Lawrence d’Arabia : “…è questo forse il più meraviglioso dei castelli del mondo…”.
Perle des sizilianischen Barock und UNESCO-Weltkulturerbe.
Pearl of Sicilian Baroque and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Istanbul Archeological Museums, İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri. Gülhane Park, Fatih District, Istanbul, Turkei. One1stanbul Photo Album - Candidate Photographs. NATIONAL SUGRAPHIC Always Under The Light Of Your ❤ Masters of the Art - SANATIN USTALARI
Aššur (Akkadian) (Turkish-Türkçe Asur Kalat Şergat, English | Ashur/Assyria, Assyrian / Aššur; Assyrian Neo-Aramaic / Ātûr ; Hebrew: אַשּׁוּר / Aššûr; Arabic: آشور / ALA-LC: Āshūr; Kurdish: Asûr), also known as Ashur, Qal'at Sherqat and Kalah Shergat, is a city from the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
Please contact Mr. ÇAKAR to use this photo. COPYRIGHT OWNER © 2014 All Rights Reserved Ayhan ÇAKAR. Please contact photograph artist to use this photo. When the album is completed, a portion of the revenues will be donated to Social Welfare Institutions. Please Pluse and Share!
Lost cities abound in Myanmar, but none approach the splendour of Bagan. Scattered across an arid plain in a bend of Ayeyarwady are the ruins of around 2000 monasteries, temples, shrines and stupas - remnants of an imperial capital that reached its peak between the 11th and 13th centuries.
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25th March 2012 - Pikestones is the remains of a Neolithic Burial Cairn, located on Anglezarke moor in Lancashire, England. The site is approximately 150 feet (45 metres) long and 60 feet (18 metres) across at its widest point. It consisted of one burial chamber constructed of large upright slabs, capped by two lintel slabs, forming a chamber of 15 feet (4.5 metres) long, 3 feet (0.9 metres) wide and 3 feet (0.9 metres) high, covered by a huge mound of stones and turves. The cairn was aligned almost exactly North-South, with the burial chamber under the wider northern end. At the northern edge of the cairn, a double wall could be made out, curving inwards to form an entrance to a forecourt.
Today the cairn has been badly robbed and the main features are the five large gritstone slabs, the remains of the burial chamber.
Surprisingly, evidence suggests that the bodies were not interred directly in the tomb, but were left outside, perhaps at the entrance to the cairn, for birds and wild animals to consume the flesh and then, probably after elaborate ceremonies, the bones were placed inside the chamber.
Pikestones is the earliest man-made structure in the area and only one other chambered tomb has been found in Lancashire. The monument must have taken an immense amount of labour to construct and like most long barrows was erected in a prominent position, located on a ridge at a height of just over 900 feet (276 metres). This gave the neolithic builders excellent views, and made the structure visible from a wide area of the Lancashire plain, perhaps warning other people that the land belonged to the builders.
A native woman in front of the Traditional Harran Houses. Yöresel Harran Evleri önünde bir yerli kadın.
Harran, Şanlıurfa Province, TURKEI. OneTurkei Photo Album - Candidate Photographs
NATIONAL SUGRAPHIC Always Under The Light Of Your ❤ Masters of the Art - SANATIN USTALARI. COPYRIGHT OWNER © 2015 All Rights Reserved Ayhan ÇAKAR. Please contact photograph artist to use this photo. When the album is completed, a portion of the revenues will be donated to Social Welfare Institutions. Please Pluse and Share!
Harran (Turkish: Harran, Ottoman Turkish: حران,) was a major ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia whose site is near the modern village of Altınbaşak, Republic of Turkei, 44 kilometers southeast of Şanlıurfa or Urfa Province.
I did want to show you the general area where the tombs were found. It is so typical of the rocky and rugged terrain of Oman. This area is near Wadi Al Ayn. There are 21 tombs built in a row. This photo shows two of the tombs.
As of now, it s believed that they were built in the third millennium BC. Many countries have offered their assistance to Oman officials to continue try to identify their origin and original function.
A reminder that all of my images are copyrighted and are not for your use in any way unless you contact me. Thank you so much for your visits and comments.
I thought that I would post one or two pictures from Jordan since this small Arab country is now playing center stage in the news of the day. The pictures are from a trip I made about 5 years ago.
This is the first view one has of Petra after following the long path from the hotels to the ancient UNESCO World heritage Site. The opening is the siq and the building is the Treasury. To see this mysterious view is a memory that will always be etched in my mind.
The gorgeous pink/coral/red sandstone caravan city dates back to the 6th century BC. Goods such as Arabian frankincense, Chinese silk and Indian spices were traded in this remarkable city that sits between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. Its magic continues to mesmerize people today as the sandstone rock changes colors through out the day.
A reminder that all of my images are copyrighted and are not for your use in any way unless you contact me. Thank you so much for your visits and comments.
In a time when Santa Fe was a called a 'small town', and things of the world were black and white.
'way out Cerrillos Road, a scant mile from a service station where we went once for water to make our beer, because they had a well (city water was not available that far out).
This was our pride and joy for less than a year, when the kinfolks lured us back to Texas.
I visit this place whenever I'm in Santa Fe. The old neighborhood looks a little run down nowadays, and the streets are filled with parked cars which overflow the single garages and driveways now.
The view across the vast prairie back to Rodeo Road and beyond is filled with houses now, and the prairie dogs that once inhabited the area, I'm sure have long since abandoned the place.
We were a nice, friendly bunch of young homeowners back then, though.
Nostalgia is an old man's pleasure.
This is Samhuram. It is a UNESCO World heritage site which is in the early stages of being excavated and restored. It does date back to the 1st Century so it will not be an easy task.
Frankincense was a very expensive commodity at that time in history and the Dhofar region of Oman was one of the few if not the only place where it was found. This was a very wealthy city. One of the Queen of Sheba's palaces was located here. Just over the hill is the beautiful blue-green Arabian Sea that I just showed you.
A reminder that all of my images are copyrighted and are not for your use in any way unless you contact me. Thank you so much for your visits and comments.
Fanciful reconstruction, 19th century, mistakenly attributed to Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-1574), apparently based on Berossus, c.250 BC (mountain shaped, high walkways) and Philo, c.250 BC, or c.150 BC, or 1st century AD, or 6th century AD (forest of columns, fountains) and Diodorus, c.50 BC (stairways)
Representação dos Jardins Suspensos da Babilônia com a Torre de Babel ao fundo.
Segundo a versão que atribui a Nabucodonossor, a edificação teria sido realizada em homenagem à sua esposa Amytis, filha do rei Medes, que tinha saudades das montanhas verdejantes de sua terra natal, não sendo a única edificação do rei, mas a maior de uma série que incluiu templos, ruas, palácios e muralhas em um número infindável. O casamento com Amytis estabeleceu uma aliança importante entre os dois povos. Mas Amytis ficou deprimida ao chegar à Babilônia saindo de uma terra cheia de pastagens, montanhosa, cheia de riachos e cachoeiras para residir em uma região inóspita, arenosa e plana. Seu esposo decidiu então recriar a paisagem desejada por Amytis construindo uma montanha artificial e um jardim na sua área superior. A denominação de jardins suspensos é portanto parcialmente equivocada porque não diz respeito à jardins devidamente suspensos por cabos ou correntes, mas sim proveniente de uma tradução incorreta da palavra grega Kremastos ou do latim Pensilis que possuem outro significado, o de superpostos. Strabo, um geógrafo da Grécia antiga tratou os jardins da seguinte forma: "Eles consistem de terraços superpostos, erguidos sobre pilares em forma de cubo. Estes pilares são ocos e preenchidos com terra para que ali sejam plantadas as árvores de maior porte. Os pilares e terraços são construídos de tijolos cozidos e asfalto. A subida até o andar mais elevado era feita por escadas, e na lateral, estavam os motores de água, que sem cessar levavam a água do rio Eufrates até os Jardins”.
This beautiful bracelet of Psusennes I bears the Wadjet Eye amulet. Wadjet was the most popular amulet of ancient Egypt, it represents the healed eye of the god Horus and embodies healing power as well as regeneration and protection in general. This amulet protects the deceased on his journey after death.
Gold and Lapis lazuli
21st dynasty
Provenance: Tanis, Tomb of Psusennes I
JE 85773.
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Basilllica Cistern - Yerebatan Sarnıcı
Sultanahmet, Fatih District, Istanbul, TR
SUGRAPHIC ~ Always Under The Light of Your Love ...
Sanatın Ustaları ~ Masters of Art ~ One 1stanbul Photo Album - Candidate Photos
ISTANBUL 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics for Peace on Earth..
DÜNYADA BARIŞ için ISTANBUL 2024 Yaz Olimpiyatları ve Paralimpiksleri..!
The Basillica Cistern (Turkish: Yerebatan Sarnıcı or Yerebatan Sarayı) located in the Historical Peninsula of Istanbul City (Province), is one of the few early architectural examples that have survived till the present age. The glamourous underground cistern was built during the reign of emperor justinianus in the 6th century, the age of glory for Eastern Rome. The cistern is 140m long and 70m wide and covers a total area 9.800 sq m. There are 336 marble columns in the cistern, each 9m high. The columns are arranged in 12 rows each consisting of 28 columns.
Trinity-Lobanovo. 2012.
Nikon D7000, Nikkor 105mm, f/5.6, 1/80, ISO 100
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#ancienthistory #arch #brick #brickwork #grass #landscape #plant #tintsandshades #tree #wood
Perseus has come to save Andromeda, who is tied to a rock and is about to be ripped apart by a sea monster, who stares at her with bared teeth. In his left hand, Perseus holds the head of Medusa, which he has just cut off and which will help him to defeat the monster.
Nereids on either side offer gifts to the (future) couple. The one to the right is the more charming of the two, her face and torso in full frontal, rendered in classical style. She wears a diadem, earrings and red bracelets, two on her upper arms and a single one for each wrist. She extends her right arm toward the couple and proffers a plate or perhaps a phial full of wine. In her left hand, she holds a part of the veil that floats behind her in the sea breeze. Her ketos resembles the one that threatens Andromeda but it looks placidly at the Nereid. Her counterpart to the left wears the same jewellery but appears less graceful as she offers the couple a goblet with a stem. She too is partly reclining on a ketos, whose lowered hand and forelimb suggest a lion: the body of the monster has partly disappeared but it ends in a green-red tail turned upward.
Mosaic carpet/floor
Graeco-Roman Museum
Alexandria Egypt
Before getting on the clipper ship, we toured other areas of the beautiful country of Greece. A place that I will always remember was Olympia where the ancients held the first Olympics and where the ornate Temple of Zeus was heralded as one of the ancient wonders of the world.
Of course the Temple is now longer there, but on the foggy morning of my visit about six years ago, I quickly sensed the importance of this site to the ancient Greeks.
Who loses himself in his passion, is losing less than who loses his passion -
Wer sich in seiner Leidenschaft verliert, verliert weniger, als der, der seine Leidenschaft verliert -
-St. Augustinus-
Solid gold bracelet with a triangular in cross-section
Inside the bracelet a cartouche with Birth Name of Psusennes I (upside down in this picture):
Pa seba kha en niut
pꜢ-sbꜢ-ḫꜤi-n-niwt
The star who has appeared in Niut (Thebes)
21st dynasty
Provenance: Tanis, Tomb of Psusennes I
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Two armlets of King Psusennes I
21st dynasty
Provenance: Tanis, Tomb of Psusennes I
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Serpentinite
Late Period
Cat. 945 numero doppio Museo Egizio
Egypt of Glory exhibition, Amos Rex Art Museum, Helsinki
From the collection of Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy
9.10.2020-21.3.2021
Palamidi (Greek: Παλαμήδι) is a fortress to the east of the Acronauplia in the town of Nafplio in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece. Nestled on the crest of a 216-metre high hill, the fortress was built by the Venetians during their second occupation of the area (1686–1715).
The fortress was a very large and ambitious project, but was finished within a relatively short period from 1711 until 1714. It is a typical baroque fortress based on the plans of the engineers Giaxich and Lasalle. In 1715 it was captured by the Turks and remained under their control until 1822, when it was captured by the Greeks.
The eight bastions of the fortress were originally named after the Venetian provveditori. However, when it fell to the Ottoman Empire, the bastions were given Turkish names. Lastly, when the Greeks overthrew the Turks the bastions were renamed after ancient Greek leaders and heroes (Epaminondas, Miltiades, Leonidas, Phocion, Achilles, Themistocles. The two remaining bastions were named after St. Andrew (Agios Andreas) and the French Philhellene Robert who died in battle on the Acropolis of Athens. The "Miltiades," was used as a prison and among its walls was also held Theodoros Kolokotronis, hero of the Greek Revolution.
The fortress commands an impressive view over the Argolic Gulf, the city of Náfplio and the surrounding country. There are 857 steps in the winding stair from the town to the fortress. However, to reach the top of the fortress there are over one thousand. Locals in the town of Nafplion will say there are 999 steps to the top of the castle, and specials can be found on menus that incorporate this number to catch a tourist's eye.
Source: Wikipedia | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palamidi
Babylon was the capital city of Babylonia in Mesopotamia (in contemporary Iraq, about 70 miles south of Baghdad). The name is the Greek form of Babel, which is derived in turn from the Semitic form Babilu, meaning "The Gate of God". This Semitic word is a translation of the Sumerian Kadmirra.
History
The earliest mention of Babylon is in a dated tablet of the reign of Sargon of Akkad (24th century BC short chr.), who made it the capital of his empire. Over the years it fell back afterwards into the position of a mere provincial town and remained so for centuries, until it became the capital of Hammurabi's empire (18th century BC) From this time onward it continued to be the capital of Babylonia.
The city itself was built upon the Euphrates, divided in equal parts among its left and right banks with steep embankments built to contain the river’s seasonal floods. Babylon gradually grew in extent and grandeur, but in process of time it became subject to Assyria. It rebelled against the Assyrian rule under Mushezib-Marduk and again under Shamash-shum-ukin but was besieged and taken over by Sennacherib and Assurbanipal (Kandalanu) again.
Early turmoil
During the reign of Sennacherib, Babylon underwent a constant state of revolt, which was only suppressed by the complete destruction of the capital. In 689 BC its walls, temples and palaces were razed to the ground and the rubbish thrown into the Arakhtu, the canal which bordered the earlier Babylon on the south. This act shocked the religious conscience of Mesopotamia; the subsequent murder of Sennacherib was held to be an expiation of it, and his successor Esarhaddon hastened to rebuild the old city, to receive there his crown, and make it his residence during part of the year. On his death Babylonia was left to his elder son Shamash-shum-ukin, who eventually headed a revolt against his brother Assur-bani-pal of Assyria.
Once again Babylon was besieged by the Assyrians and starved into surrender. Assur-bani-pal (or Assurbanipal) purified the city and celebrated a "service of reconciliation", but did not venture to "take the hands" of Bel. In the subsequent overthrow of the Assyrian empire the Babylonians saw another example of divine vengeance.
On the fall of Nineveh (612 BC) Babylon had thrown off the Assyrian yoke, and became the capital of the growing Babylonian empire.
With the recovery of Babylonian independence under Nabopolassar a new era of architectural activity set in, and his son Nebuchadnezzar made Babylon one of the wonders of the ancient world.
It was under the rule of king Nebuchadnezzar (605 BC-562 BC) that Babylon had become one of the most splendid cities of the ancient world. Nebuchadnezzar ordered the complete reconstruction of the imperial grounds, including rebuilding the Etemenanki and the construction of the Ishtar Gate, the most spectacular of eight that ringed the perimiter of Babylon. The Ishtar Gate survives today in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Nebuchadnezzar is also credited with the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world) which he is said to have had built for his homesick wife Amyitis. Whether the gardens did exist is a matter of dispute. Although excavations by German archaeologist Robert Koldewey are thought to reveal its foundations, many historians disagree about the location, and some believe it may have been confused with gardens in Niniveh.
Babylon under the Persians
After passing through various vicissitudes the city was occupied in 538 BC by Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, who issued a decree permitting the Jews to return to their own land (Ezra 1). Under Cyrus, and his heir Darius I, Babylon became a center of learning and scientific advancement. Babylonian scholars completed maps of constellations, and created the foundations of modern astronomy and mathematics. However, under the reign of Darius III, Babylon began to stagnate.
Invasion by Alexander the Great
In 331 BC The Persian king Darius III was defeated by the forces of the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great at the battle of Gaugamela, and in October Babylon saw its invasion and occupation. A native accounting of this invasion notes a ruling by Alexander not to enter the homes of its inhabitants.
Under Alexander, Babylon again flourished as a center of learning and commerce. But, after Alexander’s mysterious death in 323 BC in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar, his empire was divided amongst the generals, and decades of fighting soon began, with Babylon once again caught in the middle.
The constant turmoil virtually emptied the city of Babylon. A tablet dated 275 BC states that the inhabitants of Babylon were transported to Seleucia, where a palace was built as well as a temple to which the ancient name of E-Saggila was given. With this event the history of Babylon comes practically to an end, though more than a century later it was found that sacrifices were still performed in its old sanctuary. By 141 BC, when the Parthian Empire took over the region, Babylon was in complete desolation and obscurity.
Archaeology of Babylon
Historical knowledge of Babylon's topography is derived from the classical writers, the inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar, and the excavations of the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft, which were begun in 1899. The topography is necessarily that of the Babylon of Nebuchadrezzar; the older Babylon which was destroyed by Sennacherib having left few, if any, traces behind.
Most of the existing remains lie on the east bank of the Euphrates, the principal being three vast mounds, the Babil to the north, the Qasr or "Palace" (also known as the Mujelliba) in the centre, and the Ishgn "Amran ibn" All, with the outlying spur of the Jumjuma, to the south. Eastward of these come the Ishgn el-Aswador "Black Mound" and three lines of rampart, one of which encloses the Babil mound on the N. and E. sides, while a third forms a triangle with the S.E. angle of the other two. W. of the Euphrates are other ramparts and the remains of the ancient Borsippa. We learn from Herodotus and Ctesias that the city was built on both sides of the river in the form of a square, and enclosed within a double row of lofty walls to which Ctesias adds a third. Ctesias makes the outermost wall 360 stades (42 miles/68 km) in circumference, while according to Herodotus it measured 480 stades (56 miles/90 km), which would include an area of about 520 km² (approx. 200 square miles).
The estimate of Ctesias is essentially the same as that of Q. Curtius (v. I. 26), 368 stades, and Clitarchus (ap. Diod. Sic. ii. 7), 365 stades; Strabo (xvi. 1. 5) makes it 385 stades. But even the estimate of Ctesias, assuming the stade to be its usual length, would imply an area of about 260 km² (100 square miles). According to Herodotus the width of the walls was 24 m (80 ft).
Saddam Hussein installed a huge portrait of himself and Nebuchadnezzar at the entrance to the ruins. He also had part of the ruins rebuilt, to the dismay of archaeologists, with his name inscribed in an imitation of Nebuchadnezzar, on many bricks used. One frequent inscription reads, "This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq." The bricks became sought after collectors' items after the fall of Saddam, and the ruins are being restored to their original state.
dictionary.laborlawtalk.com/Babylon#Invasion_by_Alexander...
One of the most important objects in a tomb was naturally the coffin that would protect its owner's mummy and incidentally preserve important information and research material for modern-day Egyptologists. During the New Kingdom coffins were often human-shaped. A deceased could have as many as three nested coffins.
Nakhtkhonsueru's wooden meticulously crafted coffin is representative of a typical Late Period coffin style. The maker has spread a layer of white plaster on the wooden lid and executed the paintings on the plaster. The coffin was discovered in the tomb of Prince Khaemwaset, son of Ramses III, among several other coffins. According to the inscriptions on the coffin, Nakhtkhonsueru was an important Theban person, "the Lord of the Necropolis at the temple of Amun".
25th dynasty
Egypt of Glory exhibition, Amos Rex Art Museum, Helsinki
From the collection of Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy
9.10.2020-21.3.2021
Babylon: Ancient Middle Eastern city. The city's ruins are located about 55 mi (89 km) south of Baghdad, near the modern city of Al-Hillah, Iraq. Babylon was one of the most famous cities in antiquity. Probably first settled in the 3rd millennium BC, it came under the rule of the Amorite kings around 2000 BC. It became the capital of Babylonia and was the chief commercial city of the Tigris and Euphrates river system. Destroyed by Sennacherib in 689 BC, it was later rebuilt. It attained its greatest glory as capital of the Neo-Babylonian empire under Nebuchadrezzar II (r. 605 – c. 561 BC). Alexander the Great, who took the city in 331 BC, died there. Evidence of its topography comes from excavations, cuneiform texts, and descriptions by the Greek historian Herodotus. Most of the ruins are from the city built by Nebuchadrezzar. The largest city in the world at the time, it contained many temples, including the great temple of Marduk with its associated ziggurat, which was apparently the basis for the story of the Tower of Babel. The Hanging Gardens, a simulated hill of vegetation-clad terracing, was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Standard of Wepwawet
Egypt of Glory exhibition, Amos Rex Art Museum, Helsinki
From the collection of Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy
9.10.2020-21.3.2021
Image From www.mxdesign.dk/mediagallery.htm
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (also known as the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis) and the walls of Babylon (present-day Iraq) were considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. They were both supposedly built by Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC .
The Hanging Gardens are extensively documented by Greek historians such as Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, but otherwise there is little evidence for their existence. In fact, there are no Babylonian records of any such gardens having existed. Some (circumstantial) evidence gathered at the excavation of the palace at Babylon has accrued, but does not completely substantiate what look like fanciful descriptions.
Some schools of thought think that through the ages the location may have been confused with gardens that existed at Nineveh as tablets from there clearly showing gardens have been found. 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.
According to accounts, the gardens were built to cheer up Nebuchadnezzar's homesick wife, Amyitis. Amyitis, daughter of the king of the Medes, was married to Nebuchadnezzar to create an alliance between the nations. The land she came from, though, was green, rugged and mountainous, and she found the flat, sun-baked terrain of the Mesopotamia (a region of southwest Asia) depressing. The king decided to recreate her homeland by building an artificial mountain with rooftop gardens.
The Hanging Gardens probably did not really "hang" in the sense of being suspended from cables or ropes. The name comes from an inexact translation of the Greek word kremastos or the Latin word pensilis, which means not just "hanging² but "overhanging," as in the case of a terrace or balcony.
The Greek geographer Strabo, who described the gardens in the first century BC, wrote, "It consists of vaulted terraces raised one above another, and resting upon cube-shaped pillars. These are hollow and filled with earth to allow trees of the largest size to be planted. The pillars, vaults, and terraces are constructed of baked brick and asphalt."
More recent archaeological excavations at the ancient city of Babylon in Iraq uncovered the foundation of the palace. Other findings include the Vaulted Building with thick walls and an irrigation well near the southern palace. A group of archaeologists surveyed the area of the southern palace and reconstructed the Vaulted Building as the Hanging Gardens.
However, the Greek historian Strabo had stated that the gardens were situated by the River Euphrates. So others argue that the site is too far from the Euphrates to support the theory since the Vaulted Building is several hundreds of meters away.
They reconstructed the site of the palace and located the Gardens in the area stretching from the River to the Palace. On the river banks, recently discovered massive walls 25 m thick may have been stepped to form terraces... the ones described in Greek references.
Com as intensas pesquisas feitas na região, foram descobertos vários vestígios e inscrições que levaram os pesquisadores a concluírem que uma cultura até mesmo mais antiga que a egípcia tinha se desenvolvido naquela parte da Terra.
Foi a partir dessas descobertas que se descobriu a história dos Sumerianos, o "povo misterioso" que antecedeu os assírios e babilônios.
O descobrimento de um mundo anterior foi de tão grande importância para a compreensão da Babilônia, quanto foi o descobrimento da cultura de Creta e Tróia para se compreender a antiguidade grega .
Foram os sumerianos que melhoraram as condições da região, construindo um grande sistema de canais e fazendo o saneamento e o cultivo do terreno. Construíram também muitos templos, como atestam os tijolos, pórticos e colunas encontrados nas ruínas das cidades de Ur, Shirpurla, Erech e outras.
Não esqueçamos, também, que foi esse povo que criou a tão conhecida Escrita Cuneiforme , que se constituiu na primeira escrita de que a humanidade teve conhecimento .
Alguns estudiosos chegaram a dizer que quase tudo que tinha sido apresentado pela Babilônia remontava ao trabalho dos sumerianos.
Consideramos importante destacar aqui um trecho bastante interessante do livro "Deuses,Túmulos e Sábios "do historiador C.W. Ceram , mostrando as conclusões dos pesquisadores sobre a origem da Babilônia e os sumerianos:
"Juntaram-se centenas de pesquisas isoladas , convergindo na afirmação de que não podiam ser nem os babilônios semíticos, nem os assírios, os inventores da escrita cuneiforme , mas um outro povo , não semita, cuja existência , aliás, ainda não pôde ser provada por um único achado sequer. Tal hipótese não deixava nada a desejar em ousadia.Contudo, os pesquisadores tornaram-se tão seguros, no decorrer dos anos, que, apesar de apenas afirmar a existência de tal povo, deram-lhe um nome. O franco-alemão Jules Oppert falou em sumerianos. É deduzido do título dos mais antigos soberanos da parte mais austral do país dos Dois Rios, os reis de Sumer e Akkad. Não demorou muito e descobriu-se que quase tudo que tinha sido apresentado por Babilônia e Nínive remontava ao trabalho preparatório do misterioso povo sumeriano."
OS QUATRO ANIMAIS-HUMANOS E OS JARDINS SUSPENSOS
É difícil não citar os chamados "animais-humanos" e os Jardins Suspensos quando se está falando da história da antiga Babilônia .
Os animais-humanos são os tão conhecidos "quatro gênios" que são bastante citados na Bíblia .
São chamados de animais-humanos, pois, segundo as antigas escrituras, são seres que possuem expressões humanas e corpos de animais.
Podemos aqui citar algumas passagens da Bíblia que falam dos "quatro gênios" .
Citemos alguns trechos da mensagem do profeta Ezequiel :
"E do meio dela saía a semelhança de quatro seres viventes. E esta era a sua aparência: tinham a semelhança de homem..."
"(...) cada um tinha quatro rostos, como também cada um deles quatro asas"
"(...) e a semelhança dos seus rostos era como o rosto de homem; e à mão direita todos os quatro tinham o rosto de leão, e à mão esquerda todos os quatro tinham o rosto de boi; e também tinham todos os quatro o rosto de águia"
"E cada um tinha quatro rostos: o primeiro rosto era rosto de querubim, o segundo era rosto de homem, o terceiro era rosto de leão, e o quarto era rosto de águia."
Podemos também mostrar alguns trechos do Apocalipse de João :
"(...) também havia diante do trono como que um mar de vidro, semelhante ao cristal; e ao redor do trono, um ao meio de cada lado, quatro seres viventes cheios de olhos por diante e por detrás"
"Os quatro seres viventes tinham, cada um, seis asas, e ao redor e por dentro estavam cheios de olhos..."
"Um dos quatro seres viventes deu aos sete anjos sete taças de ouro, cheias da ira do Deus que vive pelos séculos dos séculos. "
Foi com grande espanto e admiração que os pesquisadores encontraram os restos dessas gigantescas figuras que foram construídas na região da Babilônia há milhares de anos. Quando o explorador Henry Layard,explorando aquela região, pôs a descoberto uma das estátuas, foram necessários mais de trezentos homens para tirá-la do enorme carro em que havia sido colocada.
É bastante interessante observar essa relação entre as escrituras antigas e os achados. Isso mostra que as obras de arte encontradas tinham um grande significado, não sendo apenas produtos da fantasia desses povos antigos.
Existe também uma certa polêmica que diz respeito aos construtores dos animais-humanos e ao significado dessas obras. Alguns falam que esses seres eram "deuses austrais" dos assírios, protetores dos palácios dos reis. Outros estudiosos falam que as obras são bem mais antigas e provavelmente tenham sido construídas pelo antigo povo Sumeriano. Neste último caso, as construções teriam um significado totalmente diferente, espiritual .
Recomendamos, no final deste texto, alguns livros, para que as pessoas interessadas em se aprofundar neste assunto, possam tirar suas próprias conclusões .
OS JARDINS SUSPENSOS
Os famosos "Jardins Suspensos da Babilônia" se constitui em uma das sete maravilhas do mundo antigo.
Existem muitas hipóteses e polêmicas sobre os Jardins Suspensos. Não se sabe ao certo quem foi o responsável por sua construção e nem porque foram construídos.
Muitos estudiosos disseram que os Jardins foram construídos em 600 a.C. por ordem do poderoso Nabucodonosor II, para "agradar e consolar sua esposa preferida, Amitis, que sentia saudade das montanhas e do verde de sua terra natal", a Média.
Na verdade, nenhum vestígio concreto dos jardins permanece. Mas, enquanto as mais detalhadas descrições dos Jardins vêm dos historiadores Gregos como Berossus e Diodorus, escrituras babilônicas não falam nada sobre o assunto. Nos documentos do tempo de Nabucodonosor não há uma simples referência aos Jardins Suspensos, embora descrições dos palácios, da cidade da Babilônia e das muralhas são encontradas. Mesmo os historiadores que deram descrições detalhadas dos Jardins Suspensos nunca os viram. Historiadores modernos argumentam que quando os soldados de Alexandre, o Grande, conquistaram a fértil terra da Mesopotâmia e viram a Babilônia, eles ficaram impressionados. Mais tarde, quando eles retornaram para terra natal deles, contavam história sobre fantásticos jardins e palmeiras da Mesopotâmia... sobre o palácio de Nabucodonosor... sobre a Torre de Babel e os zigurates (espécie de templo).
Até hoje, arqueologistas ainda estão trabalhando para juntar evidências suficientes antes de alcançar as conclusões finais sobre a localização dos Jardins, seu sistema de irrigação e sua verdadeira aparência.
Alguns pesquisadores consideram também que a data de construção dos Jardins é mais antiga que a data hoje aceita ( 600 a.C.). Talvez tivessem sido, também, os próprios sumerianos os construtores dessa maravilha do mundo antigo.
Algumas histórias indicam que os Jardins Suspensos se lavantavam por centenas de metros do chão, mas explorações arqueológicas indicam um número mais modesto, mas ainda impressionante, de altura.
A cidade de Babilônia, sob comando do Rei Nabucodonossor II, (604 – 562 a.C.) deveria ter sido uma maravilha aos olhos do viajante. " Além de seu tamanho, " escreveu para Herodotus, historiador em 450 a.C., a " Babilônia ultrapassa em esplendor qualquer cidade no mundo ".
Herodotus descreve : as paredes exteriores tinham 90 quilometros em comprimento, 24,30 metros de espessura e 97,536 metros de altura. Largo bastante para permitir uma carruagem de quatro-cavalo a fazer meia volta. As paredes internas não eram " tão espessas como as externas, mas não menos forte ". Dentro das paredes estavam fortalezas e templos que continham imensas estátuas de ouro maciço. Subindo sobre a cidade era a famosa Torre de Babel, um templo para o deus Marduk que parecia alcançar aos céus.
Enquanto um exame arqueológico dicorda de alguns dados de Herodotus (as paredes exteriores parecem ter só 16 quilometros de comprimento e não eram tão altas) a narrativa dele nos dá uma sensação de como as características da cidade pareciam a esses que a visitaram . De maneira bastante interessante, entretanto, um dos locais mais espetaculares da cidade não é nem mencionada por Herodotus: Os Jardins Suspensos, uma das Sete Maravilhas do Mundo Antigo.
Contas indicam que o jardim foi construído por Rei Nabucodonossor que regeu a cidade durante 43 anos que começam em 605 a.C. (há uma história menos fiel, diz que os jardins foram construídos pela Rainha assíria Semiramis durante o reinado de cinco anos que começa em 810 AC). Esta era a imensidão do poder da cidade e influência e Rei Nabucodonossor : construiram uma ordem surpreendente de templos, ruas, palácios e paredes.
De acordo com contas, os jardins foram construídos para animar a esposa nostálgica de Nabucodonossor, Amyitis. Amyitis, filha do rei do Medes, foi casada a Nabucodonossor para criar uma aliança entre as nações. A terra da que ela veio, entretanto, era verde, áspera e montanhosa, e ela achou o apartamento, terreno sol-assado de Mesopotamia deprimimente. O rei decidiu recrear a pátria dela construindo uma montanha artificial com jardins .
Os Jardins Suspensos provavelmente não se mantiveram " realmente " a sensação de ser suspendida de cabos ou cordas. O nome vem de uma tradução inexata da palavra grega kremastos ou latina pensilis que não significa só "suspensos" mas também " pendendo " como no caso de um terraço ou sacada.
O geógrafo grego Strabo que descreveu os jardins no primeiro século AC, escreveu, " consiste em terraços elevados um sobre outro, e apoiados em pilares cubo-amoldados. Estes são ocos e encheram de terra para permitir plantar árvores do tamanho maior. Os pilares, as abóbadas e terraços são construídos de tijolo assado e asfalto ".
" A ascensão para a história mais alta está através de degraus, e no lado deles estão máquinas de água por meio das quais são empregadas pessoas, designadas expressamente para o propósito, de continuar levando água do Eufrates ao jardim ".
Strabo toca nisso que, para os antigos, provavelmente era a parte mais surpreendente do jardim. Babilônia raramente recebeu chuva e para o jardim sobreviver a isto teria que ter sido irrigado usando água do Rio de Eufrates. O esquema era : erguia-se a água no ar para que assim pudesse fluir abaixo pelos terraços e poderia molhar as plantas a cada nível. Isto era provavelmente feito por meio de uma "bomba de cadeia."
Uma bomba de cadeia é : duas rodas grandes, uma sobre a outra, conectada por uma cadeia. Na corrente ficam os baldes amarrados. Debaixo da roda, no fundo de uma piscina está a fonte de água. Como a roda é virada, os baldes imergem na piscina e apanham água. A cadeia os ergue então para a roda superior onde os baldes são inclinados e são esvaziados em uma piscina superior. A cadeia leva então o vazio até ser novamente cheio.
A piscina ao topo dos jardins poderia ser alcancada através de portões em canais que faziam papel de fluxos artificiais para molhar os jardins. A roda da bomba debaixo foi presa a uma seta e uma manivela. Virando a manivela dava a energia para o aparelho funcionar.
A construção do jardim não era complicada só por ser difícil levar água até o topo, mas também porque tinha que evitar que a água destruísse-a. Considerando que pedra era difícil de se conseguir na planície de Mesopotamia, a maioria da arquitetura em Babel utilizou tijolo. Os tijolos eram compostos de barro misturado com palha cortada e assados ao sol. Os tijolos foram unidos então com bitumen, uma substância enlodada que agiu como um morteiro. Estes tijolos dissolveram depressa quando empapou com água. Para a maioria dos edifícios em Babel este não era um problema porque chuva era muito rara. Porém, os jardins foram expostos continuamente a irrigação e a fundação teve que ser protegida.
Diodorus Siculus, um historiador grego, declarou que as plataformas nas quais o jardim estava sobre lajes enormes de pedra, cobertas com capas de cana, asfalto e azulejos. Em cima disto uma coberta foi posta, com folhas de chumbo, evitando que a água da terra pudesse desgastar a base. Em cima de tudo isso foi posta terra de uma profundidade conveniente, suficiente para o crescimento das maiores árvores. Quando a terra foi posta e planificada, foram plantadas todos os tipos de árvores que pela grandeza e beleza encantavam os espectadores.
Qual era a grandeza dos jardins ? Diodorus nos fala que tinha aproximadamente 121 metros de largura por 121 metros de comprimento e mais de 24,3 metros de altura. Outras contas indicam que a altura era igual às paredes de cidade exteriores. Paredes que Herodotus disse que tinham 97,5 metros de altura.
Em todo caso os jardins tinham uma vista surpreendente: uma montanha verde, copada, artificial que sobe a planície. Mas, na verdade existiu? Afinal de contas, Herodotus nunca menciona isto.
"The King Hammurabi is the most famous king of the Babylonian kingdom. The whole kingdom flourished under his rule. His son Nebuchadnezzar is the one who built the Hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven wonders of world.
Nebuchadnezzar ruled the country for 43 years from 605 BC. He constructed impressive array of temples, palaces and streets. It is being told that he built this garden to please his wife, Amyitis. Amyitis, daughter of the king Medes seems to have had a passion for mountainous surroundings. There are some other accounts which say that this wonder of the world was actually built by the Assyrian Queen Semiramis.
The ancient accounts of this hanging gardens (one of the seven wonders of the world) describes the structure to be a stairs like one. The Greek geographer Strabo, describes it as , "the garden consists of vaulted terraces raised one above another, and resting upon cube-shaped pillars. These are hollow and filled with earth to allow trees of the largest size to be planted. The pillars, the vaults, and terraces are constructed of baked brick and asphalt."
The irrigation system was supposedly the complex part built on this gardens. This region had very scarce rains. Slaves were used to push the water upwards using some ancient method of irrigation. Of course there must be some exploitation of slave labor to maintain one among the seven wonders of the world. The gardens did not really hang on the roof using cables or ropes. But this name from the sense that it was built on the roof top. Some accounts state that the gardens are 400 by 400 feet and 80 feet high.
Crane Estate - Ipswich, Massachusetts - A castle influenced stone tower and walls surround the lawn and gardens as the sun starts to go down on an overcast day. The image was captured on analog black and white film.
The sacred site at Ephesus was far older than the Artemision. Pausanias understood the shrine of Artemis there to be very ancient. He states with certainty that it antedated the Ionic immigration by many years, being older even than the oracular shrine of Apollo at Didyma. He said that the pre-Ionic inhabitants of the city were Leleges and Lydians. Callimachus, in his Hymn to Artemis, attributed the origin of the temenos at Ephesus to the Amazons, whose worship he imagines already centered upon an image {bretas).
Pre-World War I excavations by D.G. Hogarth,[7] who identified three successive temples overlying one another on the site, and corrective re-excavations in 1987-88[8] have confirmed Pausanias' report.
Test holes have confirmed the site was occupied as early as the Bronze Age, with a sequence of pottery finds that extend forward to Middle Geometric times, when the clay-floored peripteral temple was constructed, in the second half of the eighth century B.C.[9] The peripteral temple at Ephesus was the earliest example of a peripteral type on the coast of Asia Minor, and perhaps the earliest Greek temple surrounded by colonnades.
In the seventh century, a flood destroyed the temple, depositing over half a meter of sand and scattering flotsam over the former floor of hard-packed clay. In the flood debris were the remains of a carved ivory plaque of a griffon and the Tree of Life, apparently North Syrian. More importantly, flood deposits buried in place a hoard against the north wall that included drilled amber tear-shaped drops with elliptical cross-sections, which had once dressed the wooden effigy of the Lady of Ephesus; the xoanon must have been destroyed in the flood. Bammer notes that though the flood-prone site was raised about two metres between the eighth and sixth centuries, and a further 2.4 m between the sixth and the fourth, the site was retained: "this indicates that maintaining the identity of the actual location played an important role in the sacred organization" (Bammer 1990:144).
The new temple, now built of marble, with its peripteral columns doubled to make a wide ceremonial passage round the cella, was designed and constructed around 550 BC by the Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes. A new ebony or grapewood cult statue was sculpted by Endoios, and a naiskos to house it was erected east of the open-air altar.
This enriched reconstruction was built at the expense of Croesus, the wealthy king of Lydia. The rich foundation deposit of more than a thousand items has been recovered: it includes what may be the earliest coins of the silver-gold alloy, electrum. Marshy ground was selected for the building site as a precaution against future earthquakes, according to Pliny the Elder.[12] The temple became a tourist attraction, visited by merchants, kings, and sightseers, many of whom paid homage to Artemis in the form of jewelry and various goods. Its splendor also attracted many worshipers, many of whom formed the cult of Artemis.
Croesus' temple was a widely respected place of refuge, a tradition that was linked in myth with the Amazons who took refuge there, both from Heracles and from Dionysus.
Wooden gilded bier under the outer coffin, resting on the bottom of the sarcophagus
Heavy wooden bed-shaped bier, gesso gilt, having within outer framework an imitation webbing. On the front two heads of lions, on the back tails of lions; the legs, in like manner, represent the fore and hind feet of a lion. The head is of concave form to fit and receive the convex bottom of the anthropoid outer coffin. The under part of the imitation mesh webbing is varnished with black resin.
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Babylon: Its Coming Destruction!
by N. W. Hutchings
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The Scriptures speak of two Babylons: Babylon and Mystery Babylon. It could be concluded that Babylon was the original Babylon over which Nebuchadnezzar reigned, and Mystery Babylon the Iraq of today.
Another more plausible explanation is that Babylon is, of course, the Babylon of 600 B.C. that was a world empire, and it is also the one that destroyed the Temple and took the Jews into captivity. However, Mystery Babylon appears at the end of the age as we see the revival of the Roman Empire in the European Union within a world system, a New World Order, touted through international entities like the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Club of Rome, Council on Foreign Relations, NAFTA, GATT, WTO, etc., and even includes the Roman Catholic Church and the ecclesiastical leadership of most of the non-Catholic denominations. Other than 3 million Israelis in Israel, the Jew is still captive in the world. Therefore, it would seem logical that Mystery Babylon is the one-world system in its tripart identification: political, economic, and ecclesiastical. It would appear that the titular head of the system will be the person who will sit in the Temple of God on Mt. Moriah and claim to be the Messiah.
We read in Revelation 13:7 that this person, called the Son of Perdition and the Antichrist, will have power over all races, nations, and languages-this will be total political power over the earth. In Revelation 13:8 we read that everyone who is not a saved person during the Tribulation will worship this world dictator as a god. This will be total religious and ecclesiastical power. According to Revelation 13:12, there will be a high priest of the false religious system, but this ecclesiastic will be part of the beast system and preach that everyone should submit to the religious authority of the Antichrist. We also read in Revelation 13:15-17 that it be mandated by the Son of Perdition that any person who does not worship him as the "messiah," in order to get a mark and number, will be killed. This is total economic power.
The old Babylon, at least today, could not possibly fulfill the prophetic destruction described in Revelation 18. However, what about the destruction prophesied for the literal city of Babylon on the Euphrates River?
According to all archaeological reports found in numerous biblical dictionaries and encyclopedias, the Babylon (or Babel) founded by Nimrod and later ruled over by Hammurabi, encompassed 200 square miles. The city was protected by a double wall, with the great wall being 344 feet high and 86 feet wide. Chariot races were held on the wall, and in times of danger, troops could be swiftly moved to points of attack. The city was so big 25 bronze gates were in the wall on each side. In numerous prophetic scriptures in the Old Testament, the ultimate destruction of Babylon, just as Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, is to come swiftly. Most biblical references claim that this was fulfilled when the armies of the Medes and Persians in about 540 B.C. diverted the Euphrates River and marched into the city under the walls. While the account of the fall of Babylon to Medo-Persia did, according to Daniel 5, happen in one day, it certainly was not destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. The city was only slightly damaged by the Medes and Persians because its fall happened so suddenly.
Babylon remained an important city during the 200 years of the Persian Empire. It was also an important political and commercial metropolis during the Grecian Empire. Alexander the Great died in Babylon in 320 B.C. When the Jews were allowed to return during the time of the Persian Empire, many remained in Babylon. At the time of Jesus Christ there were still 25,000 Jews in Babylon. Jesus commissioned Paul to take the Gospel to the Gentiles, and Peter was to go to the circumcision (Israelites). In carrying out this responsibility, we know that Peter did preach the Messianic Gospel to the Jews in Babylon in A.D. 63 (1 Pet. 5:13). The opinion of some that the Babylon referred to in this scripture was Rome is ridiculous.
With the decline of the Roman Empire the city of Babylon was not that important to world trade and commerce. Political, religious, and economic centers moved eastward and westward. Many of the beautiful bricks were carried off to be used in construction projects in Baghdad, Damascus, and cities of the decathlon. However, this was such a huge metropolis that the majority of the buildings and walls remained to be covered up with the sands of the Euphrates River and the blowing sands of the Middle East. The decline of Babylon was a slow process that occurred over a thousand years. There was no sudden destruction of Babylon, nor was it destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah.
There was considerable activity by German archaeologists during and after World War I. However, this activity was more of a nature of archaeological pillage, and certainly not reconstruction. The top 100 feet of the Ishtar Gate at Babylon was removed brick-by-brick and reassembled at the Pergamum Museum in Berlin. After the Germans, the French and English pillaged the ruins of Babylon under the sand. Many of the Babylonian artifacts are piled in the basement of the British Museum in London where there is so much junk from around the world that it probably will never be cataloged.
In 1971, UNESCO announced that it would help Iraq completely restore the ancient city of Babylon. The reconstruction would be under the general supervision of Saddam Hussein, who made his appearance in 1969 as the Iraqi strongman by hanging eight Jews on the streets of Baghdad as a warning for others to hit-the-road elsewhere. In 1978, 1 led a Southwest Radio Church tour of 103 to Iraq. One of the sites we visited was Babylon. There was a four-lane highway between Baghdad and Babylon with brick factories along the way turning out bricks for this tremendous reconstruction project. On one end of the brick was the name Nebuchadnezzar, and on the other end was the name Saddam Hussein who, then and now, envisions himself as a modern Nebuchadnezzar to restore the glory that was once Babylon's.
In spite of the 10-year suicidal war with Iran which began in 1980, Hussein continued the restoration project. In 1987 the rebuilding of the temples, the palaces, and the gardens had proceeded to a point where a month's Babylonian festival was set to declare to the world that Babylon had been restored to its former glory, and a new Nebuchadnezzar has been resurrected, or at least his spirit now lived in Saddam Hussein. To reference a story that appeared in the January 16, 1987, edition of the Los Angeles Times, Hussein appointed as marshal of the festival a musician by the name of Bashir, who invited famous musicians and personalities from around the world-the very best talent possible-to participate in the Grand Festival. In the invitations sent out to musicians, dancers, opera singers, movie stars, kings, queens, etc., a specific invitation was extended to Madonna, the sleazy rock singer, because as was noted, she lives in the heart of all Iraqi people.
It is not known exactly how the Babylonian Festival turned out, but we would presume it fared some better than Belshazzar's affair. In any event, the long war with Iran left Hussein short of funds to complete the rebuilding process, so in 1990 he invaded oil rich Kuwait. President Bush, along with the New World Order proponents, concluded that if Hussein got away with this take-away, he would also move to include Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the other oil-producing fields in the Middle East. Then, as we read in Daniel 3, the world's leaders would have to come to him and fall down and worship his golden image.
All these plans were foreshadowed in the Babylonian Festival where he placed his huge portrait beside a replica of the Ishtar Gate; he commanded a world festival to convene in Babylon; he intended to prove God a liar, and he announced that Madonna lived in the heart of the Iraqi people. Mea Domina, Madonna, in Latin corresponds in meaning to Semiramis in the Chaldean-Goddess of Heaven. So, Mea Domina, Madonna, or Semiramis indeed is worshiped by Iraqis. Semiramis constructed the first huge obelisk (phallic symbol) in honor of her late husband, Nimrod. According to tradition, she conceived a son by Nimrod after he was dead. Semiramis named him Tammuz, Son of Heaven, and he was worshiped by some of the women of Israel who were captives in Babylon (Ezek. 8:14). This past year Madonna, the movie star, said she just had to have a child, so she did have one even though she was not married. Perhaps she was destined to fulfill the type. However, any connection between Mea Domina (Semiramis) and Mary, the mother of Jesus, is of pure Catholic invention.
President Bush based his hopes on a combined alliance of nations to stop Saddam Hussein. He announced on an international television network on September 11, 1990:
A new partnership of nations has emerged...Out of these troubled times, a New World Order can emerge...A hundred generations have searched for this elusive path to peace, while a thousand wars raged across the span of human endeavor Today that new world is struggling to be born...a world where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle; a world in which nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice; a world where the strong respect the rights of the weak...This is the vision I shared with President Gorbachev in Helsinki.
The subsequent effort to divest Saddam Hussein of his Kuwaiti dream was 90 percent the United States; 9 percent England; and 1 percent the other 37 nations. However, all members of the alliance were represented in some way, even though they may have only sent a symbolic firecracker. And President Bush, who was the idol of the free world in just six months, became one of the most unpopular presidents in the history of the United States, and was replaced by an unknown womanizing Arkansawyer, showing just how fickle is the uncertainty of the human mind.
The scenario for the Desert Storm/New World Order war was prophesied by Isaiah. We read in Isaiah 13:1, 4-5: "The burden of Babylon... The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts musters the host of the battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land."
In January 1991, representative armies from five continents, 39 nations, came with loud weapons to destroy the ability of Iraq to make war. Did it happen? No! Did the Bible say it would happen? No! Why? It was not God's time. However, what did it signify? We read in verse 6: "Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty."
Even though the military capability of Saddam Hussein was not destroyed, it signaled that the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, the Great Tribulation, was near. Following verse 6 is an interlude until we get to verse 19 in the Day of the Lord: 'And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldea's' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah."
Babylon will be destroyed in an overwhelming judgment of fire, but it will be in the Tribulation, which may be near, but not now. This is why we see Saddam Hussein continuing to be such a problem today, and also why it defies reason, human or inhuman, as to why the job was not completed in 1991.
Now why would, from a New World Order viewpoint, this reconstructed city be destroyed, perhaps by an H-bomb? We keep hearing about the germ factories that Hussein has, but so do other nations. Why is the U.N. so concerned ,about the germs that Hussein owns? According to the February 4, 1998, edition of the Near East Report, both the Washington Post and New York Times have confirmed that U.N. inspectors uncovered a 1995 agreement between Russia and Iraq whereby Russia would give Hussein factories to produce huge quantities of biological weapons. Inspectors also uncovered evidence that the machinery had already been delivered, then the Russian government, evidently with the knowledge of Boris Yeltsin, lied about it. This caused grave concern in the Pentagon. Biological warfare is just not the same anymore. I refer to pages 41-45 of the book The New Creators:
At least twenty years ago Congress was warned to place government restrictions on microbiological experimentation. The April 1, 1977, edition of Time reported in part:
"Appearing before a Senate subcommittee ...HEW Secretary Joseph Caliban asked Congress to impose federal restrictions on recombinant DNA research, a new form of genetic inquiry involving E. coli ....DNA with the DNA of plants, animals, and other bacteria. By this process, they may well be creating forms of life different from any that exist on earth....What would happen, they ask, if by accident or design, one variety of re-engineered E. coli proved dangerous? By escaping from the lab and multiplying...it could find its way into human intestines and cause baffling diseases...Calder's biology chairman, Robert Sunshine, concludes: 'Biologists have become, without wanting it, the custodians of great and terrible power It is idle to pretend otherwise.'"
That the AIDS virus could have been the result of mutations resulting from genetic engineering experiments seems to be the insinuation of Karl Johnson of the National Institute of Health, quoted on page 603 of The Coming Plague:
"I worry about all this research on virulence. It's only a matter of months--years, at most--before people nail down the genes for virulence and airborne transmission of influenza, Ebola, Lassa, you name it. And then any crackpot with a few thousand dollars' worth of equipment and a college biology education under his belt could manufacture what would make Ebola look like a walk around the park."
Microbes and viruses can be genetically re-engineered now to cause any number of new and deadly diseases. Jesus said that disease epidemics would be a judgment in the last days, and we read of the boils that would affect men on earth during the Tribulation. There are at least 30 references to pestilences in the books of the prophets, and many of these are in a Tribulation setting. Hussein has played games with the U.N. inspectors, and through trickery keeps moving his deadly pets from one location to the next.
A news report from Jerusalem titled "Saddam Hiding Bio-Weapons Under Babylon?" dated March 9,1998, is interestingly related to our subject:
German newspapers this week published new disclosures on Iraq's military capabilities. The Daily Bold reported that Saddam Hussein has hidden a large supply of nerve gas and biological weapons beneath the ruins of ancient Babylon, on the assumption that the United States would not dare to bomb the archaeological and historical site.
A few weeks ago I watched an imagined scenario on television where the inhabitants of a town had been infected with a deadly new virus for which no vaccine could be found. In order to save the country, the military was ordered to obliterate the town and its inhabitants to save the rest of the nation and, perhaps, the world.
The biblical scenario in Isaiah 13 and Jeremiah 50-52 specifically state that God uses the nations to bring judgment against Babylon. Could Israel, the United States, or some other nation drop nuclear bombs and missiles on Babylon if it meant saving other nations? Yes! Would this fulfill the biblical prophecy that Babylon will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah? Yes!
We read in Ezekiel 29 that Egypt will be so desolated that even a dog will not be able to walk over the land for 40 years. This indicates nuclear destruction. However, we continue to read that Egypt will be in the midst of the nations that will be desolated.
No better close to this article can be found than 2 Peter 3:9-14: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
April 1998, vol. 5. No. 4 Keeping Time On God's Prophetic Clock L-838.
Copyright 1998 by Southwest Radio Church.
This intact bust presents a portrait of a Roman dignitary, and is regarded as a "masterpiece". It appears to have been carved in Alexandria, as each workshop developed its own motives for the bases of such busts. One of them is the palette which characterized that Alexandrian workshop. The bust also demonstrates the freedom with which Alexandrian sculptors could employ the same types and styles common in the imperial capital and elsewhere since the individual features mingle with the second and third types of Marcus Aurelius portraits.
Marble
Unknown provenance
Roman Period, 155-170 AD
Graeco-Roman Museum
Alexandria Egypt