Can Babylon be restored?

12-10-08
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Reports from Iraq say that there are plans to restore the ancient city of Babylon, south of Baghdad about an hour's drive if you're not delayed by something explosive.

Babylon was an important city about 4,000 years ago, and in its prime had elaborate buildings straddling the Euphrates River, surrounded by walls decorated with blue glazed bricks and entered through big bronze doors. The Biblical public works project called the Tower of Babel was there. So were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which King Nebuchadnezzar II hung to have a pleasant place to relax when he wasn't busy with throwing people into a fiery furnace or other civic duties.

Such history book celebrities as Hammurabi, famous for inventing laws, and Alexander the Great, famous for being great, hung out there at times. After King Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon in 539 B. C., things went down hill.

The town was in ruins by about 1,000 years ago.