Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. In 275 BC its inhabitants were removed to Seleucia, which replaced Babylon as a commercial center. Under the rule of Nabonidus the city was captured (538 BC) by Cyrus the Great and was used as one of the administrative capitals of the Persian Empire. Among the Hebrews (who suffered the Babylonian captivity under Nebuchadnezzar) and the later Greeks the city was famed for its sensual living. This name they considered came from the root, balal, 'to confound' (Genesis 11:9. The walls of Babylon, its palace, and the processional way with the famous Ishtar Gate were decorated with colorfully glazed brick. BABEL, BABYLON (1) ba-bel, bab-i-lon (Topographical): Babylon was the Greek name of the city written in the cuneiform script of the Babylonians, bab-ili, which means in Semitic, 'the gate of god.' The Hebrews called the country, as well as the city, Babhel. The Hanging Gardens were one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The brilliant color and luxury of Babylon became legendary from the days of Nebuchadnezzar (d. The city was destroyed (c.689 BC) by the Assyrians under Sennacherib, and its real spendor belongs to the later period of Babylonia after the city was rebuilt. The patron god of Babylon, Marduk (identical with Bel), became a leading deity in the Neo-Babylonian pantheon. One of the most important cities of the ancient Middle East, it was on the Euphrates River and was north of the cities that flourished in S Mesopotamia in the 3d millennium BC It became important when Hammurabi made it the capital of his kingdom of Babylonia. Babylon băb´əlŏn, ancient city of Mesopotamia.

Babylon map