The walls of Babylon from the inside were lined with fresco belts of blue and green glazed tiles, ornaments and numerous figures of lions, gazelles, dragons and warriors with weapons in their hands. The richest decorative finish was probably the double gate of the goddess of love and fertility Ishtar, located in the northern part of the city between the royal palace and the temple of Nin-Mah. The height of the gate is 26 meters. From top to bottom, they are covered with blue, blue and green glazed tiles (Fig. 8.6).
Rice. 8.6. Gate of the goddess Ishtar. Layout
Rice. 8.7. Bull ( rimi) and dragon ( sirruh, mushrush) from the gate of the goddess Ishtar (enamelled brick)
Such a color combination caused the visual effect of “moiré flickering” – in bright sunlight, the wall began to “breathe”, spreading illusory waves from air currents heated by the Sun.
Rice. 8.8. Gate of the goddess Ishtar. State Museum, Berlin
The wide arch of the gate is edged with traditional rosettes and ornaments. The surface of the towers is also decorated with yellowish-orange figures of bulls and dragons - horned half-crocodiles, half-dogs ( mushrushey) with scaly bodies and huge bird claws instead of paws (Fig. 8.7). In total, 575 such animals were found on the reliefs of Babylon. They were considered sacred animals of Bela-Marduk, the supreme god of Babylon, and Ishtar. Next to the images were placed cuneiform lines left by Nebuchadnezzar II: “I placed terrible rimi(bulls) and terrible Sirrukhov(dragons) on the walls of the portico and leave this gate in all their splendor to humanity, so that it looks at them with wonder ... ".
At the end of the 19th century, the reliefs of the gate of the goddess Ishtar were dismantled and transported by German archaeologists to the Berlin State Museum, where they are still kept (Fig. 8.8).
3. Procession Road of Marduk
From the gate of the goddess Ishtar begins its journey south to the temple of Marduk, the famous "Procession Road of Marduk." It also went from west to east from the banks of the Euphrates to the main sanctuary of Babylon - Esagila. The total width of the road is 24 meters. Of these, 7.5 meters are paved with white limestone slabs and edged with a border of dark pink breccia. The space between the paved part of the road and the walls was filled with black asphalt. On the lower edge of each plate you can read the inscription: “I, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon. I paved the Babylonian pilgrimage road for the processions of the great lord Marduk with stone slabs. Oh Marduk! Oh great lord! Grant eternal life!…”.
Rice. 8.9. Processional road of Marduk. Fragment
The road passed as if through a stone channel-sluice. On both sides of it rose seven-meter walls, evenly dissected by towers. A massive cornice with battlements and stripes of relief rosettes covered with multicolored glazes ran along the top of the walls.
The lower part of the walls on both sides of the road is decorated with two bright blue ribbons of ceramic panels. A procession of one hundred and twenty guardian lions unfolded along them - 60 on each side of the road (Fig. 8.9). The animals were of two colors - white-yellow with dark yellow manes and yellow with red-brown manes. The sizes of bared predators are close to natural - more than two meters in length. The most likely prototype of these animals can be considered the Persian lion, now exterminated, a pale yellow animal with a brown or black fluffy mane. The figures of walking predators are full of strength and expression. They are made in the best traditions of Assyrian art (Nimrud, Nineveh, Dur-Sharrukin). It is quite possible that these frescoes were made by captive masters from defeated Assyria.
Total 78 photos
So it was the turn of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. For a long time I could not approach this global topic and at the same time unusually fascinating. I had to mature for all this) As usual, I shoot a lot and in the end I come across in the asset with immense visual material that requires mandatory painstaking processing. Moreover, photography in museums is quite an intricate occupation - there is usually no light there and you are more trying to shoot correctly and squeeze everything possible out of the camera. This somewhat complicates the necessary relaxed perception of the ancient exhibits "live", but at the same time stimulates the possibility at the stage of processing to supplement the former real impressions of being in the field of History, contact with artifacts - already in terms of the second wave of penetration to the sensual level of one's sensations from contemplation.
The Istanbul Archaeological Museum was amazing, I must say. This museum complex consists of three main sections - the Tiled Pavilion (Chinili Köshk), the building of the main Archaeological Museum and the Museum of the Ancient East (Eski Shark Eserler Myusesi). And now we will talk about the latter, which many consider not too worthy of our attention and unanimously note that the Museum of the Ancient East is small, there are not many exhibits and they are in a hurry to quickly move to the main building "with the main" collections. Nevertheless, the Museum of the Ancient East of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum just really liked it. Therefore, I will dedicate three whole articles to him, otherwise I will not be able to be consistent and even enthusiastic in presenting the material) The museum itself is really not very large, but its expositions are extremely significant, amazing and fascinating. Trying to systematize the artifacts to be shown in the article precisely from the point of view of chronology is not just because there are really not many exhibits, but those that exist unequivocally compensate for some shortcomings in the exposition in covering ideas about the history of the ancient world. So we have the oldest civilizations today.
There are two ways to get to the Istanbul Archaeological Museum - from (from the entrance to the park immediately to the right and up) or from the territory (behind and the Mint to the left). We are just now going to the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul from the Topkapi First Courtyard.
02.
This street is extremely picturesque historically and already tunes in anticipation of immersion in History.
03.
I note that on the territory of the Archaeological Museum there are a lot of interesting exhibits in the open air. They are clearly worthy of a separate story, a show, and we will return to this topic, but for now we will not focus our attention on them.
04.
By the way, the Museum of the Ancient East is the first on the way to the main building. So it would be quite logical to visit it first. Here we are met by basalt lions from Senjerli (the Hittite city of Samal). 8th century BC late Hittite period. Once they also stood at the entrance of possibly the temple and are marked on the explanatory plate as Portal Lions.
05.
06.
We are standing in front of the entrance to the Museum of the Ancient East. On the left we have the main building of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, on the right is the Museum of the Ancient East, and below and in the background the photo is a canopy over ticket offices and turnstiles with places for screening personal belongings.
07.
The Museum of the Ancient Orient, built in 1883, displays a collection of artifacts dating back to the pre-Islamic period. Here and Assyria, Ancient Egypt, the Babylonian kingdom, and much more. A clearly defined route is not prescribed, so visitors immediately spread through the numerous halls and passages of the museum, visually reacting to the most attractive exhibits.
Southern and northern Mesopotamia. XX-X centuries BC.
08.
Figurines. Gods and goddesses, musicians, plant reliefs, erotic scenes.
09.
Old Babylonian period - an era in history Ancient Mesopotamia, dating from the XX-XVI centuries BC. e. (c. 2000 - c. 1595 BC according to the middle chronology). It is allocated for the southern part of the region, the Diyala valley and certain regions of the Middle Euphrates (Mari state); in other lands of Northern Mesopotamia, as well as in Eastern Anatolia, it mainly corresponds to the Old Assyrian period. The Old Babylonian era is characterized by political and cultural changes caused by the collapse of the Power of the III dynasty of Ur, the resettlement of the Amorites and the rise of state education with a center in Babylon. In archeology, this period coincides with the Middle Bronze Age.
Here we see numerous clay cuneiform tablets just from the Old Babylonian period.
10.
Gudea is the ruler (governor) of the Sumerian city of Lagash. 2141-2122 BC.
11.
Girsu (Telloh) is an ancient Sumerian city located about 25 km (16 miles) northwest of Lagash, at the site of present-day Telloh, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq.
Pool for the blessing of water, a gift from the ruler of the city of Lagash Gudea to the temple of Ningirsu. 2144-2124 BC.
12.
Stupa with a dedicatory inscription. An offering to the god Inlil from King Gudea from the city of Lagash. Third Dynasty Ur. 2114-2122 BC. Nippur. Diorite.
13.
Votive stelae. Offerings of King Gudea from the city of Lagash to the temple of Nin-Girsu.
14.
15.
The base of the sculpture.
16.
Dedicatory plates with inscriptions.
17.
18.
Akkadian kingdom. Utensil.
19.
Votive figurines-vessels. Mesopotamia.
20.
Akkadian king Naram-Sin. 2254-2218 BC. Diorite.
21.
Statue of Puzur-Ishtar - the governor of the ancient city of Mari. Beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. Basalt.
22.
23.
Stele with relief (feast scene, Hittite Empire, XIV century BC) and an altar from the temple of the god Haldi.
24.
Altar from the temple of the god Haldi. Urartu. 7th century BC Topprakkale. Trachy.
25.
A measure of weight in the form of a wild duck with a dedicatory inscription. Belonged to the Babylonian priest Mushallim-Marduk. XIII century BC Diorite.
26.
Linear measure of weight in Mesopotamia and their metric equivalents. Nippur. Bronze. XV century BC
27.
The pearl of the museum collection - the famous Treaty of Kadesh- a clay tablet with the text of the most ancient (1269 BC) between the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II and the Hittite king Muwatallis. 16 years after the Battle of Kadesh, the bloody and inconclusive war for the two countries ended with the conclusion of a peace treaty - the oldest treaty known to historical science on eternal peace, brotherhood, and cooperation in repelling external aggression and suppressing internal unrest. And 13 years later, this agreement was sealed by the dynastic marriage of Ramesses II with the eldest daughter of the Hittite king Hattusilis III. Each of the parties documented ascribed to itself an unconditional victory over the enemy.
Treaty of Kadesh. Clay tablet. Hatussa. Akkadian language. Period of the Hittite Empire. 1269 BC
28.
Northern Mesopotamia. Middle and Neo-Assyrian period. 1350-600 BC.
29.
30.
Iron age. Urartian period. IX-VI centuries BC.
32.
Middle and Late Bronze Age. Northeastern Anatolia.
33.
Pottery vessels made using a potter's wheel.
35.
Honorary steles of high dignitaries. Middle Assyrian period. XIII century BC Limestone.
36.
Vessels for storing grain with hieroglyphic inscriptions. Found in one of the rooms of the Great Temple. Period of the Hittite empire. 13th century BC. Hatussa.
37.
38.
Under the king of Urnammu and his son Shulgi Syro-Hittite orde Samal(Zanjirli) has reached its peak. According to calculations made by archaeologists, during this period there were 5250 residential buildings in Ur, which corresponded to a population, including domestic slaves, of 40-50 thousand inhabitants. Ur was bounded on the west by the old channel of the Euphrates, and on the northeast side by an artificial channel. The urban area had a size of 1000 x 700 m.
41.
It was a city built in the Sumerian tradition, oval in plan with the main axis oriented from the southeast to the northwest. The powerful walls, built of mud brick, reached a thickness of 25-32 m. In the northwestern part of the city, on a hill artificially expanded in the form of a terrace, there was the palace and temple complex of Ur, dedicated to the cult of the moon god Nannar, especially revered by the Sumerians. The main entrance to the sanctuary was located on the northeast side, from where through the monumental gate one could get into the sacred courtyard of Nannara and further into the next courtyard, on which the ziggurat was located.
42.
43.
Reliefs of the southern gate of the city of Samal. Late Hittite period. 9th century BC Basalt.
44.
48.
Reliefs from the western side of the Samal citadel gate
49.
Reliefs from the western side of the Samal citadel gate
50.
51.
Hittite warriors on a chariot.
52.
53.
King Barrecub prays against the backdrop of sacred symbols. The inscriptions tell about the structure of the royal palace.
Late Hittite period. 8th century BC Samal. Basalt.
54.
Solemn procession of dignitaries from building No. 3 of the royal palace. Late Hittite period. 8th century BC Samal. Basalt.
55.
Solemn procession of musicians from building No.3 of the royal palace. Late Hittite period. 8th century BC Samal. Basalt.
56.
Solemn procession from building No.3 of the royal palace. Late Hittite period. 8th century BC Samal. Basalt.
57.
Statue of a deity on the base on which is an image of a hero and two lions.
From the palace building J. Samal. Late Hittite period. 8th century BC Basalt.
58.
59.
60.
Delightful lions from Senjerli (the ancient city of Samal). 9th century BC Late Hittite period. Basalt.
Echoes of ancient religions and cults are clearly felt in many modern philosophies. Human societies, separated by temporal and spatial boundaries, have never lived apart in different epochs of their existence. The interpenetration and mutual influence of various civilizations can be clearly seen if you study their mythology and cult rites.
The goddess of love
One of the most famous characters of ancient cults is the goddess Ishtar. Her name is found in Old Persian, Greek, Semitic and Hebrew. In Egypt, she is known as Astarte, in Greece she was considered as one of the incarnations of Aphrodite, among the Jews she existed as Ashtoret. In any of her incarnations, the goddess Ishtar personified sexual energy, the highest expression of eroticism inherent in the fair sex. Passion, the temptations of the flesh, all kinds of pleasures obtained during sexual intercourse, including base, perverted ones, the very act of copulation elevated to the rank of a sacred ritual - all these are attributes and defining categories with which the goddess Ishtar is associated. That is why in the astral plane she was associated with Venus, which in astrology symbolizes the feminine essence and is the patroness of love.
Warrior Goddess
But another essence of the goddess is a bloodthirsty warrior, a demon of cruelty and strife. Obviously, the reason for such a broad interpretation of the image was the echoes of matriarchy and legends about the Amazons.
In addition, the goddess Ishtar is considered the wife of Baal himself - the supreme deity of the ancient Israelites, Sumerians, Assyrians and many other peoples. He symbolized the masculine principle, the creator of all things, was considered the fertilizing god. dedicated to Baal and Astarte, often turned into real sexual orgies, accompanied by "sinking sin", human, including child sacrifices.
ancient geography
To find out, Ishtar is the goddess of which country, one should remember a thousand years ago. In the 7th-5th centuries BC, a number of states existed on the territory of modern Iraq. These lands were called Mesopotamia, or Mesopotamia, and they were inhabited by the inhabitants of the Sumerian, Assyrian, Akkadian. It is important to remember this when determining whether Ishtar is the goddess of which country, because the influence of the cult spread throughout almost the entire Middle Eastern territory. We find information about it in the Epic of Gilgamesh - the world's oldest literary source, created over a period of one and a half thousand years.
A unique monument of Sumerian culture and civilization, containing elements of ancient cosmogony, consists of primitive myths and historical legends. The goddess of love Ishtar is one of the main characters, the embodiment of voluptuousness, temptations, fertility, giving birth to new life, and at the same time ennobling feelings. The Sumerians considered love to be base, primitive, wild and regenerating, uplifting. That is why the image of the goddess, whose main center of worship was the Akkadian kingdom, turned out to be so contradictory.
Babylon - city of harlots
Among other things, Ashtoret is considered the patroness of harlots, courtesans, women of easy virtue - all representatives of the most ancient profession and corrupt love. And since in Babylon in the 7th century BC, and in subsequent centuries, as well as throughout Asia Minor, there was a really large concentration of prostitutes, her cult was considered one of the main ones. Moreover, there was even temple prostitution. That is, every day several residents of the city had to sit down on specially designated places near the sanctuaries of Aphrodite (Venus, Astarte) and wait until a passing man paid her a coin and copulated right there. Only after such a ceremony, women could freely live in the city for a year, feel like a mistress in it. Then the ritual was repeated.
Divine Gate
That is why, under the emperor Nebuchadnezzar, a well-known libertine, the grandiose gates of the goddess Ishtar were built in Babylon - a monumental structure of amazing beauty. Now in the city there is a small copy of them. The original was taken out of the country more than a hundred years ago, at the beginning of the 20th century. In ancient times, the Babylonians carried statues of their gods through them when they celebrated the celebration of the Israeli New Year. Through the gates of the goddess Ishtar along the "road of processions" was brought into the city and the coffin with the body of the Great Alexander (Macedonian). By the way, also a big heartthrob and lover of women! So it's quite a symbolic procession.
Goddess symbols
The gates mentioned above are painted bright blue, and for good reason. Ishtar, the goddess of Babylon, bears a name translated from Sumerian meaning "clear clear sky." On their walls there are many bas-reliefs with figures of animals (575 pieces), made extremely realistic, with great grace and artistic truth. Images of lions and bulls are especially common. By the way, the statues of Ishtar, found during excavations of ancient temples, were depicted surrounded by these predators. The symbolic sign of the Sumerian deity is a circle braided with a ribbon, with a six-pointed (eight-pointed) star inside. This circle is the sky and the star is the sun. All together and symbolizes the very clear sky, the embodiment of which is Ishtar. "Blue Goddess", "Heavenly Goddess" - it's all about her.
Child of night and sin
Astarte is a rather controversial mythological image. It is associated not only with a clear blue, but also with the darkness of the night. The statue of the goddess Ishtar is decorated, in addition to lions, with images of owls located to the left and right of her. Having people, animals, gods as lovers, constantly changing them, distinguished by insatiable lust and amazing inconstancy, Ishtar destroys recent partners with his passion. Her love enslaves, becomes bonds, heavy as shackles. Even the gods lose their will, become miserable likenesses of the once omnipotent and fearless inhabitants of the sky. Acquaintance with Ishtar ends badly for everyone who knows the fire of her caresses and the trembling of the body. The number of lovers of the goddess is countless - it is not surprising that prostitutes and homosexuals have chosen her as their leader! However, given the sacred significance of the image and the fact that among the Sumerians temple prostitution was protected and allowed by law, it is not worth talking about sin in this case. After all, the very process of intercourse was given a divine meaning.
Ishtar and homosexuality
Why is the goddess Ishtar, whose photos can be found in various textbooks on ancient religions and other cultural literature, is considered the patroness of not only courtesans, but also homosexuals? The reason for such a wide "sphere of influence" lies, again, in the religious rites and cults of the Sumerian and later civilizations. In Canaan, this is written in the Bible, at the temples of Ishtar, ceremonies were performed not only by women, but also by young men. They entered into relations with men, thus paying honors to the goddess and glorifying her. The rite personified sacred fertility and the triumph of life in all its manifestations. Which is also quite consistent with the sacredness of the image.
Myths and legends
In the "Tale of Gulgamesh" it is written that Ishtar killed her lover, and the harvest of Tammuz. For this, other celestials took up arms against her. To atone for her guilt, Inanna descends into the realm of the dead. Her sister rules there, hating her loving relative. Ishtar has to go through seven gates that block the path to the "lower world". At each gate, she gives the servants one of the many jewels, parting at the same time with part of her mystical powers and divine power. Entering the latter, she remains naked and defenseless. The sister's anger falls on Ishtar, who has nothing to oppose. Inanna is closed in the palace, 60 diseases are sent to make her suffer and suffer. However, the imprisonment of the goddess does not pass without a trace for people. On earth, nature began to wither, plants ceased to bear fruit, animals, birds, people - to multiply. Everything that exists is threatened by death. After all, there is no more love, passion, sacred sexual fire. Understanding what trouble has come to the world, a messenger from other celestials is sent to the supreme deity Aya with a request to sort out the problem, to resolve the difficult situation. The ruler of the gods demands to revive Ishtar and return to the upper world. The order is carried out, Inanna is resurrected with the help of living water, magical amulets are returned, and with them power. But no one can just leave the world of the dead. When he leaves, he must leave behind a replacement. She becomes Tammuz. His imprisonment in the realm of shadows symbolizes
Long ago, during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, the great Babylon had seven gates bearing the names of the gods. Of extraordinary beauty was the gate of the goddess Ishtar, from where the famous Processional Road began, heading to Esagila, the temple of the patron of Babylon, Marduk. The ruins of the Ishtar Gate remain one of the most significant testimonies of the former glory of Babylon, and it is about them that I would like to tell you today.
The Ishtar Gate is located in the Museum of the Ancient Near East, which, in turn, is the pavilion of the Pergamon Museum, created in 1899. It contains the finds of German archaeologists of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. in Mesopotamia.
The Babylonian collection is the result of an expedition led by R. Koldevey, who excavated 90 km south of Baghdad. For almost 20 years, archaeologists have been working on this discovery, and as a result, Babylon appeared before us - a city of fabulous wealth, the Tower of Babel, hanging gardens, inhabited by a myriad of inhabitants . Its dimensions, buildings, the power of the fortress walls - all this once amazed foreigners. This is how he appears before us in the writings of Herodotus and the Old Testament. Later, Babylon fell into desolation, and people forgot not only about its existence, but also its exact location. But archeology has rediscovered its fortress walls with towers, the royal palace, the procession road, the remains of the temple of Marduk, and so on.
Inside the city walls, at different ends of the city, there were two dominant buildings: on the one hand, the royal palace, on the opposite side, the pyramidal temple of Esagila. It was a huge structure, each side of which was 400 meters long. To the south of it was the majestic 91-meter ziggurat Etemenanki (“the temple of the cornerstone of heaven and earth”), which became the basis for the biblical myth of the Tower of Babel. At the top of the tower was the sanctuary of the main god of Babylonia, Marduk, lined with glazed bricks, and its walls and ceilings were covered with gold and decorated with precious stones.
The processional road was perhaps the best road of the Ancient World, because it was intended to move not by people and wagons, but by the great god and patron of Babylon Marduk, who once a year made his way along it to Esagila. And it took its beginning at the gates of Ishtar.
Answering the question “why exactly were these gates dedicated to the goddess Ishtar?”, Let me remind you that among the huge pantheon of the gods of Mesopotamia, Ishtar was both the central female deity, and the patron deity and a deity who embodied in her image the features of many Mesopotamian and non-Mesopotamian deities similar type. And therefore, local and universal elements of the sacred were united in her image.
Ishtar was highly revered as the goddess of beauty and love, compared with Venus. The cult of Ishtar originated in the city of Uruk, of which she was the patroness. Among the cities of Babylonia, there were seven largest ones, among which Uruk was included. Each patron deity of one of these cities was reflected in the gates of Babylon, which was supposed to symbolize the unity of the country. And since Ishtar was recognized as the wife of Marduk, the main front gates were dedicated to her.
The Babylonian gates of the great Ishtar themselves were made double. The inner ones were twice as large as the outer ones. The glazed brick cladding glittered in the sun, and the background was decorated with 575 - I believe in accordance with the date of construction, since the Gate was built by order of King Nebuchadnezzar in 575 - gold relief images of revered animals: lions, sirros and bulls.
By the way, the gate got its name from the temple of Ishtar, which was located nearby. The symbol of the goddess Ishtar was considered to be a lion, and therefore its images adorn the walls of the Processional Road outside the gate. On the gates themselves there are relief figures of bulls (the animal of the weather god Adad) and sirrushi dragons (the animal is the symbol of Marduk).
Recall that it was here, at the Ishtar gate, that the already mentioned Procession Road began, the continuation of which in the city was Aibur-Shaba Street. It was along it that a large procession was held on New Year's Eve, led by the golden statue of Marduk.
The street itself was made up mostly of pink stone slabs, with red stone inlays around the edges. Its width was 23 meters, and along its entire length it was accompanied by walls of glazed blue brick, seven meters high. Every two meters, the walls were decorated with relief images of lions in frightening poses.
Also impressive is the inscription that Nebuchadnezzar II ordered to be placed on the Ishtar Gate, which reads:
“I am Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, a pious prince, appointed by the will of Marduk, a high priest, beloved of Nabu, judicious, who learned to choose the wise, who comprehended the divine essence of Marduk and Nabu and honored their greatness ... the first-born son of Nabopolassar, the king of Babylon ...
I demolished these gates and overlaid their foundation at the water table with asphalt and bricks. I ordered them to be built of bricks with blue tiles, on which I depicted wonderful bulls and sirrush dragons. I covered their roofs with majestic cedars, I put bronze-studded cedar doors in every opening. I made wild bulls and terrible dragons on the gate. I adorned them with such sumptuous splendor that the peoples looked at them and marveled.”
But sooner or later everything falls into decay, so the beauty of the gates of the goddess Ishtar was appreciated only after German scientists conducted a study here. In total, about 100 thousand fragments of bricks, which used to be the gate, were found.
Unfortunately, in 1902, during the excavations, the upper part of the Ishtar Gate collapsed. About a thousand fragments were delivered to Berlin, of which the specialists managed to restore the closest to the original appearance, although, of course, the Ishtar Gates presented in the Pergamon Museum are not an exact copy of the original, but this is logical - otherwise they could not fit in the museum building . Here you can also see the restored part of the Procession Road.
Smaller restored parts of the Babylonian heritage are on display in many museums around the world - the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, the Detroit Museum, the Louvre, etc. The Ishtar Gate in Iraq is still an object of admiration and a place of pilgrimage for tourists, because the structure towering 12 meters still fascinates with the secrets of ancient times.
In the past two years, the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of Iraq, Liwa Sumaysim, periodically complains about the looting of fragments of the ancient Ishtar Gate and the Processional Road.
Goddess Ishtar Gate Babil Province, Iraq. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, blue glazed remains of brick tiles and fragments of the ancient Babylon Processional Road were excavated from under a fifteen-meter layer of sand. Then, after agreement with the Iraqi government, they were transferred to Berlin. And for 30 years, the reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Road, which became the pearl of the Museum of Western Asia, proceeded painstakingly and accurately in German. And in Iraq, the reconstruction of the gate was carried out using modern analogues of bricks under Saddam Hussein.
The ancient fragments of the gate that remained in Iraq were kept in the Nebuchadnezzar Museum on the site of ancient Babylon. Before the American invasion in 2003, the museum's vaults were sealed, sending part of the exhibits to the National Museum of Baghdad. The missing bricks are believed to have been stolen from the Nebuchadnezzar Museum.
During the Iraq campaign of the US and its allies, which lasted from 2003 to 2011, the ruins of ancient Babylon were further destroyed, and many cultural values, including the heritage of the ancient states of the Sumerians and Babylonians, were looted. Nevertheless, I really want to hope that the monument of antiquity will be preserved for new generations.
Diana Augusta Stauer
Great was the city of Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. At that time, it had as many as seven gates bearing the names of the Babylonian gods. Of particular beauty were the gates of the goddess Ishtar in Babylon, from which the famous Procession Road began, heading to Esagila, the temple of the patron of Babylon, Marduk. The ruins of the Ishtar Gate remain one of the most significant testimonies of the former glory of Babylon.
Description of the gate of the goddess Ishtar in Babylon
The processional road was perhaps the best road of the Ancient World, because it was intended to move not by people and wagons, but by the great god and patron of Babylon Marduk, who once a year made his way along it to Esagila. And it took its beginning at the gates of Ishtar.
Ishtar was highly revered as the goddess of beauty and love, compared with Venus. The cult of Ishtar originated in the city of Uruk, of which she was the patroness. Among the cities of Babylonia, there were seven largest ones, among which Uruk was included. Each patron deity of one of these cities was reflected in the gates of Babylon, which was supposed to symbolize the unity of the country. And since Ishtar was recognized as the wife of Marduk, the main front gates were dedicated to her.
The Babylonian gates of the great Ishtar themselves were made double. The inner ones were twice as large as the outer ones. The facing made of glazed brick sparkled in the sun, and the background was decorated with 575 relief images of revered animals. The already mentioned Procession Road started here, the continuation of which in the city was Aibur-Shaba Street. It was along it that a large procession was held on New Year's Eve, led by the golden statue of Marduk.
The street itself was made up mostly of pink stone slabs, with red stone inlays around the edges. Its width was 23 meters, and along its entire length it was accompanied by walls of glazed blue brick, seven meters high. Every two meters, the walls were decorated with relief images of lions in frightening poses.
Lions on the Procession Road
But sooner or later everything falls into decay, so the beauty of the gates of the goddess Ishtar was appreciated only after German scientists conducted a study here. In total, about 100 thousand fragments of bricks, which used to be the gate, were found. All of them were collected and transported to Berlin, where some time later it was possible to restore the gate in its original size from real Babylonian bricks. Now the Ishtar Gate is in the Pergamon Museum (Berlin). There is also a restored part of the Processional Road. Smaller restored parts of the Babylonian heritage are on display in many museums around the world - the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, the Detroit Museum, the Louvre, etc. The Ishtar Gate in Iraq is still an object of admiration and a place of pilgrimage for tourists, because the structure towering 12 meters today reflects the past life of a large city.