III.

The Neo-Babylonian City and Its Decline

Nabopolassar founded the Neo-Babylonian dynasty, and his son Nebuchadnezzar II extended the kingdom as far as Palestine and Syria. The capital at Babylon was refurbished with new temple and palace buildings, extensive fortification walls and gates, and paved processional ways; it was the largest city of the known world, covering more than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres).

The Neo-Babylonian Empire was of short duration. In 539 bc Cyrus the Great captured Babylon and incorporated Babylonia into the newly founded Persian Empire. Under the Persians, Babylon served briefly as the official residence of the Crown prince, until a local revolt in 482 led Xerxes I to raze the temples and ziggurat, or temple tower, and to melt down the statue of the patron god Marduk.

Alexander the Great captured the city in 330 bc and planned to rebuild it as the capital of his vast empire, but he died before he could carry out his plans. After 312 bc, Babylon was for a while used as a capital by the Seleucids, who established themselves as Alexander’s successors. When the new capital of Seleucia on the Tigris was founded in the early 3rd century bc, however, most of Babylon’s population was moved there. The temples continued in use for a time, but the city lost its importance and had almost disappeared before the rise of Islam in the 7th century ad.