Babylon Gardens

Searching for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon | Ancient Origins http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/has-location-hanging-gardens-babylon-finally-been-found-001060

The Myth of Babylon Hanging Gardens Debunked

Searching for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The real location of the elusive Hanging Gardens of Babylon has eluded researchers for centuries.  It is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World whose location is still unknown, yet despite a plethora of studies claiming to know the answer, there is still no consensus among historians and experts as to where this ancient wonder once stood.  However, research conducted in November, 2013 by an Oxford University academic claimed to finally hold the answer.
The most commonly held belief in scientific circles is that the ancient city and hanging gardens was constructed by the Babylonians under the leadership of king Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled between 605 and 562 BC. He is reported to have constructed the gardens to please his homesick wife Amytis of Media, who longed for the plants of her homeland. 
However, Dr Stephanie Dalley, from Oxford University’s Oriental Institute, has spent the last two decades piecing together clues from ancient texts and decoding cuneiform text, and now believes she has come up with the true location of the Hanging Gardens. According to Dalley, the gardens were not built by the Babylonians at all, but by their neighbours and archenemies, the Assyrians, under their monarch Sennacherib.
Dalley is one of only a handful of people in the world who can read cuneiform text and one of the clues that led her to her theory was a prism at the British Museum with cuneiform text describing the life of Sennacherib, who ruled over an empire stretching from southern Turkey to modern day Israel.  The text describes a palace and garden that he built that was a “wonder for all people”.
Further support for the theory comes from a bas-relief, removed from Nineveh in northern Iraq and brought to the British Museum, showing Sennacherib’s palace complex and a garden featuring trees hanging in the air on terraces and plants suspended on arches.
Dalley believes that the famous hanging gardens were located near the city of Ninevah and were built in a series of terraces, built up like an amphitheatre with a lake at the bottom.  Because Ninevah is so far from Babylon, evidence pointing to this region as the real location of the gardens has previously been overlooked. However, Dr Dalley found that when the Assyrians conquered Babylon, their capital became known as “New Babylon”, possibly accounting for the confusion over the names.
Unfortunately, the high level of religious and ethnic violence currently plaguing that region around Nineveh means that Dalley has not been able to go there to find the proof she needs to confirm her theory. However, she directed a local film crew to go there and survey a specific area on her behalf. Their footage shows a huge mound of dirt and rubble, which slopes down to an area of greenery.  Dalley is desperately trying to find a way to excavate the site but she believes that the violence in the region may make it impossible.
“More research is required at the site, but sadly I don’t think that will be possible in my lifetime,” said Dalley. However, she added that her conviction that the gardens were in Ninevah “remains unshaken".