Babylon
Topic: Bronze Age Civilisations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Writing and City Life"
Meaning
Babylon was a city of southern Mesopotamia that rose to power after 2000 BCE. From then on, the south was called Babylonia. Under Hammurabi (1792 BCE) it grew from a city-state into an empire. After 625 BCE it became the leading city of the world and a centre of learning, especially mathematics and astronomy.
Example
Nabopolassar freed Babylonia from Assyrian rule in 625 BCE. Babylon then grew to more than 850 hectares. It had a triple wall, great palaces and temples, a ziggurat and a processional way (a wide road for religious parades). It stayed the premier city even after the Achaemenids (Persians) conquered it in 539 BCE, and until Alexander took it in 331 BCE.
Don't confuse with
- Babylonia: the name of the whole southern region after 2000 BCE. Babylon was its capital city.