Babylon, Iraq, November 4, 2025

Today we checked out of our Baghdad hotel and drove the approximately 1.5 hours to Babylon where Mahdi gave us a tour. The photo above is a reproduction of the Ishtar Gate. The original is in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

We saw the Ishtar Temple, procession avenue, grand hall, Babylon Lion statue, and the throne room where some think Alexander the Great died. In the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, Babylon may have been the largest city in the world with as many as 200,000 residents. People have lived in Babylon for more than 4,000 years. Babylon as a town still exists. Moemel, one of our local guides, is from Babylon. His grandmother still lives in Babylon.

Some of the bricks bear the markings of Nebuchadnezzar II as founder of the Neo-babylon era city. During a Babylon reconstruction project and in imitation of Nebuchadnezzar, Saddam had bricks inscribed "This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq." After Hussein's downfall, these bricks became collector's items.

Taken from Saddam's Babylon Palace, the first photo is of the Babylon archaeological site. The second photo shows the walls of the procession avenue. The Babylon Lion Statue is thought to be from the royal museum of Nebuchadnezzar II and was found by local villagers in 1776 in the ruins of the northern palace.

From the ancient city of Babylon, we drove up the hill to Saddam Hussein's palace (last photo above) built in a ziggurat style on old Babylon ruins. In 2003, he intended to have a cable car line constructed over Babylon, but plans were halted by the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

It is possible that Hussein never spent even one night in this palace. It is now in ruins. Stone friezes of Saddam's self-aggrandized feats are installed over several of the doorways. The interior is stripped of everything that could be reached. If there were ever any glued on gold features, they are now gone.

Our group was given access to the second and third floors so we roamed at will.

From Babylon we drove on to the city of Najaf.