The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon (in the area of present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq). It was constructed c. 569 BC[1] by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was part of a grand walled processional way leading into the city.
The original structure was a double gate with a smaller frontal gate and a larger and more grandiose secondary posterior section.[2] The walls were finished in glazed bricks mostly in blue, with animals and deities (also made up of colored bricks) in low relief at intervals. The gate was 50 feet (15 meters) high, and the original foundations extended another 45 feet (14 meters) underground.[3]
German archaeologist Robert Koldewey led the excavation of the site from 1904 to 1914. After the end of the First World War in 1918, the smaller frontal gate was reconstructed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.[4]
Other panels from the façade of the gate are located in many other museums around the world.
The façade of the Iraqi embassy in Beijing, China includes a replica of the Ishtar Gate.[5] The façade of the Iraqi embassy in Amman, Jordan also evokes the Ishtar Gate.[6]
^Di Chiara, Anita, et al., (January 17, 2024). "An archaeomagnetic study of the Ishtar Gate, Babylon", in: PLOS ONE: "The vertical line is placed at 569 BCE, which is where the mean crosses the LAC. This proposed date for the construction of the gate supports the suggestion that the gate complex was built after the successful Babylonian campaign to Judah and Jerusalem in 586 BCE. However [...] the recorded intensity for the time of the gate’s construction (136±2.1 ZAm2) is significantly different than the one recorded for the time of Jerusalem’s destruction layer (148.9±3.9 ZAm2)."
^Garcia, Brittany. "Ishtar Gate". World History Encyclopedia.
^Podany, Amanda (2018). Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization. The Great Courses. p. 213.
^Luckenbill, D. D. "Review: The Excavation of Babylon". The American Journal of Theology. 18: 420–425. doi:10.1086/479397 – via JSTOR.
^"China's Iraq Oil Problem". Fortune. June 30, 2014.
^media2 (2020-06-07). "The Embassy of Republic of Iraq in Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Makes Unremitting Efforts to Follow Up Affairs of Iraqi Community in Combatting the Coronavirus – وزارة الخارجية العراقية". Retrieved 2023-10-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
The IshtarGate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon (in the area of present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq). It was constructed c. 569...
and the construction of the IshtarGate—the most prominent of eight gates around Babylon. A reconstruction of the IshtarGate is located in the Pergamon...
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and gates of Aurangabad in Aurangabad (Maharashtra) Walled city of Kota in Kota (Rajasthan) Teen Darwaza in Bhadra Fort, Ahmedabad Iraq: IshtarGate, Hillah...
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way from the IshtarGate to the temple of Marduk. A large group of such figures is part of the Processional Way leading to the IshtarGate, a centrepiece...
and neck of a snake, the forelegs of a lion, and the hind-legs of a bird. Here it is shown as it appears in the IshtarGate from the city of Babylon....
Valentinian II Statue of Alexander the Great Puzur Ishtar, governor of Mari Glazed brick panel from way to IshtarGate Porphyry sarcophagi of Byzantine emperors...
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at Babylon revealed the foundations of the ziggurat Marduk, and the IshtarGate; he also developed several modern archaeological techniques including...
gods. Mušḫuššu A creature from ancient Mesopotamian mythology found on IshtarGate. A mythological hybrid, it is a scaly dragon with hind legs resembling...
Babylonian pantheon as follows: Jupiter with Marduk, Venus with the goddess Ishtar, Saturn with Ninurta (Ninib), Mercury with Nabu (Nebo), Mars with Nergal...
stained glass windows of the cathedrals of Saint-Denis and Chartres. The IshtarGate of ancient Babylon (604–562 BC) was decorated with deep blue glazed bricks...
York. It was one of many that lined the Processional Way north of the IshtarGate. It was excavated by R. Koldewey in 1902, and at the Staatliche Museen...
bow and arrow, 645–635 BC ID 10 (1992) Blue-green Saddam Hussein and Ishtargate Lamassu, Assyrian carving of a winged bull ID 25 (1990) Green Horses...