The
Ishtar Gate (
AssyrianAssyrian Neo-Aramaic is a modern Eastern Aramaic language. Assyrian Neo Aramaic is neither to be confused with Assyrian Akkadian, nor the Old Aramaic dialect that was adopted as a lingua franca in Assyria in the 8th century BC. Although this latter Aramaic is also an Aramaic language, it is...
:
ܕܵܪܘܲܐܙܲܐ ܕܥܵܐܫܬܲܪ translit:
Darwaza D'Ishtar, Arabic:بوابة عشتار) was the eighth gate to the inner city of
BabylonBabylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city.
Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess
IshtarIshtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte.-Characteristics:Ishtar is a goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex...
, the Gate was constructed of blue glazed tiles with alternating rows of bas-relief
sirrushThe sirrush is a creature depicted on the reconstructed Ishtar Gate of the city of Babylon, originally dating to the 6th century B.C. It resembles a scaly dragon with hind legs like an eagle's talons and feline forelegs. It also has a long neck and tail, a horned head, a snakelike tongue and a crest...
(
dragonDragons are legendary creatures, typically with serpentine or otherwise reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of worldwide cultures.The two most familiar interpretations of dragons are European dragons, derived from various European folk traditions, and the unrelated Oriental dragons, such as...
s) and
aurochsThe aurochs or urus was a type of wild cattle, the ancestor of domestic cattle. It inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct; it survived in Europe until 1627....
.
The roof and doors of the gate were of
cedarCedar is a genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae. They are most closely related to the Firs , and share a very similar cone structure...
, according to the dedication plaque.
The
Ishtar Gate (
AssyrianAssyrian Neo-Aramaic is a modern Eastern Aramaic language. Assyrian Neo Aramaic is neither to be confused with Assyrian Akkadian, nor the Old Aramaic dialect that was adopted as a lingua franca in Assyria in the 8th century BC. Although this latter Aramaic is also an Aramaic language, it is...
:
ܕܵܪܘܲܐܙܲܐ ܕܥܵܐܫܬܲܪ translit:
Darwaza D'Ishtar, Arabic:بوابة عشتار) was the eighth gate to the inner city of
BabylonBabylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city.
Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess
IshtarIshtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte.-Characteristics:Ishtar is a goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex...
, the Gate was constructed of blue glazed tiles with alternating rows of bas-relief
sirrushThe sirrush is a creature depicted on the reconstructed Ishtar Gate of the city of Babylon, originally dating to the 6th century B.C. It resembles a scaly dragon with hind legs like an eagle's talons and feline forelegs. It also has a long neck and tail, a horned head, a snakelike tongue and a crest...
(
dragonDragons are legendary creatures, typically with serpentine or otherwise reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of worldwide cultures.The two most familiar interpretations of dragons are European dragons, derived from various European folk traditions, and the unrelated Oriental dragons, such as...
s) and
aurochsThe aurochs or urus was a type of wild cattle, the ancestor of domestic cattle. It inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct; it survived in Europe until 1627....
.
The roof and doors of the gate were of
cedarCedar is a genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae. They are most closely related to the Firs , and share a very similar cone structure...
, according to the dedication plaque. Through the gate ran the Processional Way which was lined with walls covered in
lionThe Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
s on glazed bricks (about 120 of them).
Statues of the deities were paraded through the gate and down the Processional Way each year during the New Year's celebration.
Originally the gate, being part of the Walls of Babylon, was considered one of the
Seven WondersThe Seven Wonders of the World is a well known list of seven remarkable constructions of classical antiquity. It was based on guidebooks popular among the ancient Hellenic tourists...
of the world until, in the 6th century AD, it was replaced with the
Lighthouse of AlexandriaWith a height it was identified as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Antipater of Sidon. It may have been the third tallest building after the two Great Pyramids for its entire life.-History:...
.
A reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way was built at the
Pergamon MuseumThe Pergamon Museum is situated on the Museum Island in Berlin. The site was designed by Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann and was constructed in twenty years, from 1910 to 1930...
in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
out of material excavated by
Robert KoldeweyRobert Johann Koldewey was a German architect and archaeologist, famous for his discovery of the ancient city of Babylon in modern day Iraq. He was born in Blankenburg am Harz in Germany, the duchy of Brunswick, and died in Berlin at the age of 70...
and finished in the 1930s. It includes the inscription plaque. It stands 47 feet high and 100 feet wide (14 meters by 30 meters). The excavation ran from 1902-1914 and during that time 45 feet of the foundation of the gate was uncovered.
The gate was in fact a double-gate. The part that is shown in the Pergamon Museum today is only the smaller frontal part, while the larger back part was considered too large to fit into the constraints of the structure of the museum. It is in storage.
Parts of the gate and lions from the Processional Way are in various other museums around the world. Only three museums acquired dragons while lions went to several museums. The
Istanbul Archaeology MuseumThe Istanbul Archaeology Museums is an archeological museum, located in the Eminönü district of Istanbul, Turkey, near Gülhane Park and Topkapı Palace.The Istanbul Archaeology Museum consists of three museums....
has lions, dragons, and bulls. The
Detroit Institute of ArtsThe Detroit Institute of Arts , originally named the Detroit Museum of Art, has one of the largest, most significant art collections in the United States. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally-owned museum in the United States with an art collection valued at more than one...
houses a dragon. The Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg, Sweden, has one dragon and one lion; the
LouvreThe Musée du Louvre or officially the Grand Louvre — in English, the Louvre Museum or Great Louvre, or simply the Louvre — is the largest national museum of France, the most visited museum in the world, and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris, located on the Right Bank of the...
, the
Royal Ontario MuseumThe Royal Ontario Museum, commonly known as the ROM, is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's largest museum of world culture and natural history. The ROM is the fifth largest museum in North America, containing more than six million items and over 40 galleries...
in Toronto, the
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and AnthropologyThe University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, commonly called The University Museum, is an archaeology and anthropology museum that is part of the University of Pennsylvania in University City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
in Philadelphia, the
Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, known colloquially as The Met, is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile in New York City, USA. It has a permanent collection containing more than two million works of art, divided into nineteen curatorial...
in New York, the
Oriental InstituteThe Oriental Institute , established in 1919, is the University of Chicago's archeology museum and research center for ancient Near Eastern studies....
in Chicago, the
Rhode Island School of Design MuseumRhode Island School of Design Museum is a prominent art museum in Providence, Rhode Island affiliated with the well-known Rhode Island School of Design...
, the
Museum of Fine ArtsThe Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas. The museum was founded in 1870 and its...
in Boston, and the
Yale University Art GalleryThe Yale University Art Gallery houses a significant and encyclopedic collection of art in several buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Although it embraces all cultures and periods, the Gallery possesses especially renowned collections of early Italian painting,...
of New Haven, Connecticut, each have lions.
A smaller reproduction of the gate was built in Iraq under
Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
as the entrance to a museum that has not been completed. Damage to the reproduction gate has occurred since the
Iraq warThe Iraq War, also known as the Occupation of Iraq or Operation Iraqi Freedom, is an ongoing military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom.Prior to the war, the governments of the United...
(see Effects of the U.S. military).
External links