33 / 128
giving insights into daily life in Mesopotamia. Sumerians also devel-
oped such important tools as the wheel and the plow, and they
created a form of banking.
As the centuries passed, empires rose and fell in Mesopotamia.
One of the greatest of the later ones was Assyria, the largest empire
the ancient world had ever seen. The empire lasted from about
1400 to 612
BCE
. At the height of their influence the Assyrians con-
trolled land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Caspian Sea, and
from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. The ruins of Nineveh, the cap-
ital of Assyria, are located near the city of Mosul, Iraq.
In 612
BCE
Nineveh was destroyed by another growing
Mesopotamian power, the Babylonians. One of the most influential
Babylonian rulers was King Nebuchadnezzar, who built Babylon
into the most beautiful city in the ancient world. He created the
famous “hanging gardens,” with trees, plants, and flowers growing
on a tiered structure held by arches 400 feet (122 meters) above the
ground. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were proclaimed one of
the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
I
RAQ
’
S
H
ISTORY TO
1990 33
The remains of
Nebuchadnezzar’s
palace in Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar, a sev-
enth-century
BCE
king of
Babylon, built the
Hanging Gardens of
Babylon, one of the
Seven Wonders of the
Ancient World.