One hundred twenty-five years ago, on March 26, 1899, German architect and archaeologist Robert Johann Koldewey (1855–1925) began excavating the site of ancient Babylon (about 50 miles south of Baghdad in modern Iraq). Following minor probes by various earlier expeditions, this was the first large-scale excavation of the Babylonian capital. From 1899 to 1917, Koldewey uncovered the city’s plan and excavated several major monuments, including the splendid Ishtar Gate (see photo), Nebuchadnezzar II’s summer palace, and a ziggurat dedicated to the god Marduk that he identified with the biblical Tower of Babel. Babylon—the heart of a great empire that ended […]
