London Shows Babylon's Legacy

11-13-08
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aRfjgJ3LHRcM&refer=home

Not many of us have been to Babylon. For the last five years, its remains in southern Iraq have been partly covered by a military base. Yet we've all heard a lot about it -- the Hanging Gardens, the Whore and the Tower (admittedly of Babel, but it comes to the same thing).

For a town that peaked over 2,500 years ago, Babylon still has quite a reputation. The British Museum's new exhibition ``Babylon: Myth and Reality,'' which has arrived in London after stops in Berlin and Paris, clearly has a meaty theme. The result is a thought-provoking little show -- much more compact than the Berlin version -- focusing on the metropolis of Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 B.C.)