Ancient Mesopotamian Gardens and the Identification of the

The Garden History Society
Ancient Mesopotamian Gardens and the Identification of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Resolved
Author(s): Stephanie Dalley
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Garden History, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Summer, 1993), pp. 1-13
Published by: The Garden History Society
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STEPHANIE DALLEY
ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN GARDENS AND THE
IDENTIFICATION
OF THE HANGING GARDENS OF
BABYLON RESOLVED
The Babylonians and Assyriansplanted gardens in cities, palace courtyards,and temples, in
which trees with fragrance and edible fruits were prominentfor re-creating their concept of
Paradise. The famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of late
antiquity, have finally been identifiedas the palace garden of the Assyrian king Sennacherib,
constructednot at Babylon but at Nineveh, which was also known as 'old Babylon', around
700 B.C. Sennacherib invented the Archimedean screw, using cast copper or bronze, for
watering the gardens.A sculpturenow in theBritish Museum shows a part of the gardensin the
reign of Sennacherib'sgrandson, when the treeshad matured.
The king plants a date-palmin his palace and fills up the space beside her with a
tamarisk.Mealsareenjoyedin the shadeof the tamarisk,skilledmen gatherin the shadeof
the date-palm,the drum is beaten, men give praise, and the king rejoicesin his palace.
The two trees, brotherand sister, arequite different;the tamariskand the palm-tree
competewith eachother.They argueandquarreltogether.The tamarisksays:'I am much
bigger!' And the date-palmargues back, saying: 'I am much better than you! You, O
tamarisk,are a useless tree. What good are your branches?There's no such thing as a
tamariskfruit! Now, my fruits grace the king's table; the king himself eats them, and
people say nice things aboutme. I make a surplusfor the gardener,and he gives it to the
queen; she, being a mother, nourishesher child upon the gifts of my strength, and the
adults eat them too. My fruits are alwaysin the presenceof royalty'.
The tamariskmakes his voice heard;his speech is even more boastful. 'My body is
superiorto yours!It's muchmorebeautifulthananythingof yours. You arelike a slavegirl
who fetches and carriesdaily needs for her mistress'. He goes on to point out the king's
table, couch, and eating bowl are made from tamariskwood, that the king's clothes are
made using tools of tamariskwood; likewise the temples of the gods are full of objects
madefromtamarisk.The date-palmcountersby pointingout thather fruitsarethe central
offeringin the cult; once they havebeen takenfromthe tamariskdish, the bowl is used to
collect up the garbage.
THISEXTRACT,from one of the most popular pieces of Babylonian literature, was written
in cuneiform on clay tablets as early as 2000 B.C. It tells us about one of the earliest kinds
of garden, 4,000 years ago.
If we look at the natural, uncultivated environment of central Iraq, we can see
immediately that the most important features of a garden would be trees for shelter from
The OrientalInstitute,Pusey Lane, Oxford oxi 2LE
2
ANCIENT
MESOPOTAMIAN
GARDENS
the heat and the glare of the sun. By contrast, in the naturalenvironmentof southern
Iraq's beautiful marshlands, about which Wilfred Thesiger has written, we see the
characteristictreesof the south- the date-palm,the tamarisk,andthe Euphratespoplar
- flourishing alongside the water-courseswhich lead into the cane-breaks of the
marshland.
THE COURTYARD
GARDEN
In ancient times the wild boaras well as domesticatedpigs rootled everywhere,and the
first city walls were designed not simply against human enemies but also to keep out
greedy snouts, and to divertflood waterwheneverthe greatrivers- the Tigris and the
Euphrates- bursttheirbanks. For thesereasonsthe gardenwas an urbanphenomenon,
set safelyinsidethe wallsof a city whichformeda moundraisedwell abovethe floodplain
of the adjacentcountryside.Morethanthat, the best placefor a pleasantgardensafe from
maraudingpigs and thieving urchins, grazing goats, and noisy people, was the large
internalcourtyardthat was characteristicof royal palaces.
This is where the tamarisk and the date-palm argued it out. One of the huge
courtyardsin the palaceat Mari (c. I800 B.C.)on the Middle Euphrateswas called the
Courtof the Palmsin contemporarywrittenrecords.The walkwaysacrossit aremade of
baked brick, terracotta, and they are traditionallyraised above the surface of the
courtyard, to keep them free of drifting dust in hot weather and ubiquitous mud in
winter. The rationlists found in this palace tell us that there were severalprofessional
gardenerson the palacepayroll,and that the king and his entourageoften ate theirmeals
in the garden.There werecertainlyorchardsand fishpondselsewhere,beyondthe palace
walls, but we know very little about them. However, it seems to have been a source of
prideto havea largeareawithin the city wallsdevotedto palm-grovesor orchards,for the
prologue to the Epic of Gilgameshboasts of the famous city Uruk, saying: 'One square
mile is city, one squaremile is orchards,one squaremile is claypits'. The reasonfor such
spaciousnesswas the need to drive herdsinside the city walls at night for securityand in
times of siege. Indeed, an epithet of Uruk in myth is 'the sheepfold'. By 'orchards',
date-palmgroves are probablyimplied.
A few centuries later at the site of Ugarit on the coast of Syria, with its palace
(c. 1400 B.C.)looking towardsthe Mediterranean,we find the palacecourtyardcontaining a garden,with a not-quite-centralstone basinfor waterformingan importantfeature.
The excavatorsthought they found evidence for loose earth at the edge of one of these
courtyards,and speculatedthat flowersor shrubsmight have been planted there.
It may be surprising,if one is thinkingof later, Islamicgardens,that the stone water
basinis not centrallyplacedin the courtyard.The reasonmay be that a treenormallytook
that position - either a real tree or an ornamental,imitation tree. The tree was so
importantin ancientMesopotamiathatit was personifiedas a god, Nin-Gishzida,'trusty
tree', and had the powerof human speech, just as the date-palmand the tamariskdid in
their dispute over superiority.Nin-Gishzidaguardedthe gate of heaven and acted as a
sheriffin the Underworld.In a Babylonianelegy at the death of Tammuz(dating to the
seventhcenturyB.C.or earlier),the felled treemakesits lamentin a firstpersonnarrative:
STEPHANIE
DALLEY
3
'Now they have felled me, they have carried me off forever. My father sees me and
weeps'.
Texts and architecturalremainsfrom Ugaritsuggest the possibilitythat gardensin
palacecourtyardsservedfor the remembranceof deadancestors.The dynastictomb was
sometimes located in a vault beneath the palace, sometimes actually beneath the
courtyard;and sacrificeswere offeredat Ugaritto an Underworldgod, Resheph, in the
palace garden. The tombs of Assyrianqueens of the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.,
found recentlywith all their finery beneaththe paving of a courtyardin the north-west
palace at Nimrud, are the most splendid examples of the practice. Is this our first
evidence for the gardenof remembrance?And does the tree plantedin the centre of the
courtyardthus symbolize regenerationin a very direct way, the family tree in every
sense?
Few kinds of trees are naturalto centraland southernIraq, and perhapsthat is the
reasonwhy the treewas so importantto the ancientBabylonians.As the dispute between
the date-palmand the tamariskshows, they werevaluedfor food and timber, but certain
attributesthat are less easily quantifiableare clearfrom scatteredallusionsto gardensas
places for picnics, for courtship, for the display of militarytrophies, and for the quiet
appreciationof nature's beauty. Resinous scents were particularlyvalued. Several of
these attributesare evident in the most famous gardenpicture from ancient Mesopotamia, althoughit shows a gardenoutside a palace:Assurbanipal,the last greatking of
Assyria,is shown on a sculpturefeastingwith his queen, recliningwestern-styleupon a
couch beneath an arbour of vines, attended by servants, courtiers, and musicians.
Various trophies from his illustrious conquests are on display: an Egyptian-style
necklace hangs from his couch; an Elamite bow rests on the table behind him with a
swordof Iraniandesign. A little way off, suspendedfromthe branchof a fragrantpine, is
the dismemberedhead of his arch-enemy,the King of Elam.
HUNTING
PARKS
Although the palace courtyardgardenwas sometimes large enough to accommodatea
few attractiveanimals such as deer and gazelle, the royal urge to collect zoological
specimens had generallyto be satisfiedin a wider landscape. From at least 2000 B.C.
Mesopotamiankings who campaignedabroad and received exotic gifts from foreign
vassalrulerstook a greatinterestin strangeplants and animalswhich were presumably
kept at some distancefromthe palace,if not outside the city walls. The keenest collector
of animals was Tiglath-Pileser I (around
I000 B.C.),
who says in his royal inscriptions:
I formedherdsof horses,oxen and assesfromthe booty I took when I gained
dominionoverlandswiththesupportof thegodAssur,mylord.Inaddition,I gotcontrol
ofandformedherdsofnayalu-deer,
ayalu-deer,
gazelleandibexwhichthegodsAshurand
Ninurta,thegodswholoveme, hadgivenmein thecourseof thehuntin highmountain
ranges. I numberedthem like flocks of sheep ....
I took cedar,box-tree,and Kanishoak fromthe landsoverwhichI had gained
hadeverplanted
dominion- suchtreesasnoneamongpreviouskings,myforefathers,
andI planted[them]in the orchardsof my land.I tookrareorchardfruitwhichis not
foundin my landandfilledthe orchardsof Assyria.
ANCIENT
4
MESOPOTAMIAN
GARDENS
... I received tribute from the lands of Byblos, Sidon and Arvad; I received a
crocodileand a large, female ape of the sea coast.
... I made replicasin alabasterand basaltof a nahiruwhich is called a sea-horseand
which ... I had killed with a harpoonof my own makingin the GreatSeaof the West; and
of a live yak which was broughtfrom the mountainLumashon the far side of the country
Habhu.
CITY GARDENS
Just over a century later another Assyrian king, Assurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.),
undertook enormous waterworks in order to bring water from the foothills and mountain
streams to irrigate newly planted orchards in his capital city Nimrud, which lies by the
Tigris river in northern Iraq. He has left us his own account of the garden that he planted:
I dug out a canalfrom the UpperZab, cuttingthrougha mountainpeak, and calledit
AbundanceCanal. I watered the meadows of the Tigris and planted orchardswith all
kinds of fruit trees in the vicinity. I planted seeds and plants that I had found in the
countriesthroughwhich I had marchedand in the highlandswhich I had crossed:pines of
different kinds, cypresses and junipers of different kinds, almonds, dates, ebony,
rosewood,olive, oak, tamarisk,walnut,terebinthandash, fir, pomegranate,pear,quince,
fig, grapevine ...
The canal-watergushes from above into the gardens; fragrance pervades the
walkways,streamsof wateras numerousas the starsof heavenflow in the pleasuregarden
....
Like a squirrel I pick fruit in the garden of delights.
Not all of these saplings came from far-distant countries; we are lucky enough to
have a letter of the late eighth century B.C. that indicates a flourishing nursery trade in
fruit trees on the Middle Euphrates. When Sargon n (722-704 B.C.) built an entirely new
capital city, named Dur-Sharrukin, north-east of Nineveh, he bought up land from local
owners who were properly compensated, and had parks and orchards laid out for his
royal pleasure, where he and his family could practise hunting lions, and falconry. A
letter from one of his governors sent him a report as follows:
I havelevied upon the peopleof Nemad-Istarthe supplyof 2,350 loadsof apple trees,
and 450 loads of medlar trees. [The people of Suhu province]are collecting saplings of
almond, quince and plum trees, and they are transportingthem to Dur-Sharrukin.The
peopleof Suhuarealso bringingsaplingsfrom the landof Laqe: I,000 loadsof appletrees.
Their vanguardhas arrivedand I have seen it, but their rearguardhas not yet arrived.
Although in some areas, the municipal planting was perhaps not very imaginative,
for example alongside the banks of rivers or the sides of roads, in other places,
particularly in the gardens of royal cities, the planting was varied in every way. It is
almost certain that the slopes, an artificial lake, and a pavilion shown on the monumental
relief sculptures of Sargon were contrived to give a more interesting landscape (Figure I).
A finely built altar here graces the top of a hill surrounded by a grove of fragrant pines; at
the foot of the hill, set out over the water like a boathouse is a splendid little pillared
pavilion, backed by fruit trees. The various trees, a hilly terrain, flowing water, and the
particular architectural features become characteristic of royal gardens within cities.
Whether Sargon's garden and boating lake were set within the walls of his city or
outside it, is not clear. But the style of garden is obviously naturalistic: this is
emphatically not the forerunner of the Persian garden with its geometric layout and
STEPHANIE
DALLEY
5
Figure I. Gardenof SargonII at his new capitalDur-Sharrukin.Drawingfrom
P. E. Botta and E. Flandin, Monumentde Ninive II (Paris, I849), pl. I4
symbolicwaterconduitsleadingto a centralpool. It is a hilly mountainsidein which the
king can go hunting with falcons, or boating. Like the pillared pavilion which was
explicitlya North Syrianor Anatolianborrowing,'justas they arein the Hatti-land',the
style of gardenmay have been adoptedfrom the same area.
Sargon'ssuccessorSennacherib(704-68 B.C.)broughtclearwaterfroma mountain
river down to his gardens and parks at Nineveh along channels and aqueducts from a
beautifulplace called Bavian, north-eastof Nineveh. The remainsof this aqueductcan
still be seen, built in monumentalstone, with archesthathavepointedtops. Sennacherib
describedhis works in his own words:
I cut through the hills with iron pickaxes and ran a canal over one and a half
double-hours(about o miles?) of ground ... and I made the water flow through in
channels.To arrestthe flow of the waterthroughthose orchards,I made a swampand set
out a cane-brakein it: herons, wild boar, beasts of the forests I releasedinto it. By the
command of the gods, vines, all kinds of fruit trees and herbs thrived and burgeoned
within the gardens. Cypressand mulberrytrees grew large and multiplied; cane-brakes
grew fast to mighty proportions;sky-birdsand water-birdsbuilt their nests; and the wild
sows and beastsof the forestsbroughtforth their young in abundance.I cut down some
mulberriesand cypresses that grew in the parks, and reeds from the swamp, and used
them as needed in building my royalpalaces.
This swamp was a completely artificialcreation, inspired by the campaign that
Sennacheribhad conducted successfully in southern Babylonia. What we can never
expect to find out is whether the imported plants and animals thrived in their new
situation:cotton and olives which Sennacheribtried to raisemay have failed to flourish;
his artificialswamp may have nourished more mosquitoes than wild boar; and local
fish-pondmanagerssurely protestedvehementlyat herons who rearedtheir young on
fish intended for the royal table.
6
ANCIENT
MESOPOTAMIAN
GARDENS
TEMPLE GARDENS
Sennacheribalso built a temple of the New Year Festival within a garden, outside the
walls of Assur, the traditionalcapitalof Assyriaon the middle Tigris. Thanks to careful
excavationof the root-pits, the layout of trees or bushes was discovered by a German
expedition, although the type of plant could not be established. Within the central
courtyardof the simple, rectangularbuilding, as well as outside it on all four sides, trees
or shrubs had been planted very neatly in regularrows. The excavatorsreconstructed
them as bushes, but they may have been treeswith slim trunks, to give the impressionof
a sanctuarywithin a grove. This single example shows us that temple courtyards,like
palace courtyards, were used for gardens. There seems, however, to be a marked
differencebetweenAssyriantemples in the north and Babyloniantemples in the south;
the latterpossessedfar largerland-holdings,apparentlyin close proximityto the temple
buildings themselves, and those lands were cultivatedas small-holdingsthat took turns
to provide offerings to the cult, especiallydates, pomegranatesand figs. The temple of
the New Year Festival may have been the place where the king, representingthe god,
performedthe ritualmarriageceremonywith a priestess.That love-makingtook place in
gardens, is clear from the love lyric of Nabu, god of wisdom and his divine spouse,
Tashmetu:
'Theshadeof thecedar,shadeof thecedar,shadeof thecedar,is theking'sshelter.
Theshadeof thecypressis forhisnobles.Theshadeof thejuniperis shelterformyNabu
andfor my games!'
'Forwhat,O what,areyoudressedup, my Tashmetu?'
'SothatI maygo intothegardenwithyou,myNabu,let me go intothegarden,into
thegardento mylord.Letmego aloneintothebeautifulgarden .... Maymyeyesseethe
pluckingof yourfruit,Maymyearshearthesongof yourbirds .. Bindyourdaysto the
gardenandto the Lord!Bindyournightsto the beautifulgarden.'
'Letmy Tashmetucomewithme intothe garden.'
Major temples in ancient Mesopotamiahave been found decorated with semiengagedcolumns imitatingthe trunksof date palmsand the spiral-patternedtrunksof a
palm with inedible fruit, perhapsChamaeropshumilis.The facadeof the temple to the
Sun god at Larsa, for instance, was adornedin this baroquefashion. The temple of the
New Year Festival at Assur, describedabove, stood in a grove of trees. We can deduce
that some urbanand suburbantemples were given an architecturalform and decoration
symbolic of a setting in a sacredgrove, in the gardenof paradise.
Usually the main temple in a big city had a ziggurrator temple tower with several
stagesand a shrineon top. When Sir LeonardWoolleyexcavatedat Ur, he found that the
ziggurratwas a mud-brick structurewith an outer casing of baked brick. The whole
structurewas perforatedat regularintervals by holes which penetratedright into the
brickwork. Woolley interpretedthem as drainageholes to carryoff water from plants
which adornedthe variousstages of the tower. This was incorrect:the holes are there to
enable the brickworkto dry out evenly and so to preventcrackingand collapse. Several
more recentlydiscoveredrepresentationsof ziggurrats,both on monumentalsculptures
and in miniature on cylinder seals, have confirmed that the towers were indeed not
plantedwith treesor bushes. Sometimesthey aretoppedwith animalhornsas arealso the
battlementsof cities.
STEPHANIE DALLEY
7
Quite apart from the structuralproblems of planting large plants to grow on a
mud-bricktower, and the mechanicalproblemsof raisingwater so high, it would have
been almost impossible to supply them with enough water without washing away the
mud-brickof the tower.
THE HANGING GARDENS
Woolley's writingswere so popularthat it has proved difficult to dislodge this misconception about ziggurratgardensfrom the public mind. Many people still think that the
Hanging Gardensof Babylon were planted on the stages of the ziggurrat, so that the
foliagehung over the sides, even though there is nothing in the descriptionsof Classical
writers to support the idea. A part of the problem lies in the English word 'hanging',
which impliestrailingplants,growingdownwardsbelowthe placewherethey are rooted.
The Greekword, kremastos,is explainedin some detail by Diodorus Siculus, Quintus
Curtius Rufus, and Philo of Byzantium. It was used for artificialslopes raised up on
terracesconstructedof stone, bitumen, and timberlike a Greektheatre,upon which soil
was heaped and trees planted.
For years there has been an embarrassingproblemabout the location and appearance of the famous Hanging Gardensof Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the
ancient world. They were described by several Classical authors, among whom are
Berossos (known from quotations in the writings of Josephus), Strabo, and others
mentionedabove. BerossosstatedthatNebuchadnezzarhadbuilt them; QuintusCurtius
Rufus stated that an Assyrianking who conqueredBabylonbuilt them. All agreedthat
they lay in Babylonnearthe royalpalace.They were said to be built upon vaulted stone
terracesand to imitatea mountainsidewith trees. Diodorus Siculus and Straboemphasized thatthey wereparticularlymarvellousfor a systemof wateringwhich carriedwater
invisiblyup to the top of the gardens.Strabospecificallysaid that it was an Archimedean
screw.
A Germanteam excavatedthe centre of Babylon and the palaces of Nebuchadnezzar, so that the layoutof the palaceareais now particularlywell known, and thereare
cuneiformtexts which describethe topographyof the city. The excavatorsdid discovera
brick vaulted substructurewithin one of the palaces, but nothing on a scale that might
have warranteda descriptionas one of the wondersof the world. Since the Classicaltexts
stated that the gardenslay beside the river, and since an enormous amount of water
would have been needed to irrigate such a garden, investigatorssearched for a site
alongside the Euphratesbeside the palacesof Nebuchadnezzar,but failed to find any
evidence for the famous gardens.
I cameto the conclusionthatsince therewas a lot of confusionbetweenNineveh and
Babylon and between Assyria and Babylonia in Classical sources, a solution to the
problem might be found by analyzingthat confusion. Diodorus Siculus, in describing
'Babylon',seemedto give detailsthat belongedto Nineveh, in particularhis description
of a palacewith walls thatwere adornedwith sculpturedstone reliefsdepictingscenes of
hunting and battles. This is appropriateto the well known palacesof Sennacheriband
Assurbanipalat Nineveh, but definitelyinappropriateto the palacesof Nebuchadnezzar
in Babylon, which were decorated in an entirely different way. When describing
8
ANCIENT
MESOPOTAMIAN
GARDENS
Nineveh, on the other hand, Diodorus Siculus located it on the wrong river, the
Euphrates,ratherthan the Tigris.
Anotherconfusionexisted: betweenNebuchadnezzarand Sennacherib.This arose
mainly from Jewish sourceswhich seem to have conflatedthe two attackson Jerusalem
describedin the Old Testament.A particularlyclearexampleof this confusionis evident
in the aprocryphalBook of Judith,which opens with the statementthat Nebuchadnezzar
was king of the Assyrians(Babylonianswould be correct)and ruledin Nineveh (Babylon
would be correct).
A breakthroughcame from a new attemptto understandthe technicaldescription
given in one of Sennacherib'sinscriptions.He describedthe building of his new 'Palace
without a Rival' in Nineveh, the layout of adjacentgardens, and the new invention
which, instead of the usual shaduf, watered the gardens. The curious vocabulary, of
which previous translatorshad been able to make no good sense, creatednew technical
meanings. The word 'tree trunks' described cylinders (in fact the word was already
attested in this sense in mathematicaltexts). The name for a palm tree that has a spiral
patternon the trunkwherethe old frondshavebrokenawaywas used to describea screw.
The Babylonianname for this palm, known from other texts to have inedible fruit, is
alamittu,and it had alreadybeen tentativelyidentifiedas Chamaerops
humilis,which does
indeed exhibit a spiral effect on the trunk. (There are two particularlyfine, mature
examples of this tree at present in the palm house at the Botanic Gardensin Oxford.)
Proof that this pattern was thought of as a spiral comes from architecturalevidence:
semi-engagedcolumnson templeshave been excavatedat severalancientMesopotamian
sites, giving alternatepairs of imitation date-palmtrunks with a scallop pattern and
non-edible-fruitpalm with a spiral pattern; the two kinds of pattern are made with
shapedbricks. Sennacheribdescribedhow he cast the two componentsout of copper or
bronze from clay moulds, and put them together to make a water-liftingdevice.
It is perhapsnot surprisingto find that the Archimedeanscrew existed some four
centuries before the lifetime of Archimedes himself. Great inventions are commonly
attributedto a laterpersonwho succeededin publicizingthe discoveryor in puttingit to a
new use. In the caseof Archimedes(as alsowith the theoryof Pythagoras),it is likely that
he claimed the honour for having been the first to describe mathematicallyand with
precision the physical principlesbehind the practicalapplication.
Sennacherib'stext does not make it clearhow the screwswere rotated. They were
set over cisterns. The inscriptiondoes not specify how many there were. It does seem
clear that the tremendousproblemof wateringmountaintrees planted upon artificially
terracedslopes was solved in this way.
It is significant that Sennacheribgave such prestige to the construction of the
gardensand theirwateringsystem. This set a precedentfor futurekings. One of the main
arguments for denying that Nebuchadnezzarhad ever built the gardens was that his
building inscriptions,completeand detailedas they are, never describednew gardensor
a new system of watering.In the latterrespecthe restrictedhis interestto the completion
of a municipal shadufplatformbeside the Euphrateswhich his father had begun.
By locatingthe HangingGardensin Nineveh anotherpuzzle has been solved. When
Herodotusdescribedthe city of Babylonin the fifthcenturyB.C.,he failedto mention the
Hanging Gardens,and has been vilified for his unreliabilityin this matter. But with the
STEPHANIE
DALLEY
9
gardensat Nineveh, his accountis vindicated.By rejectingNebuchadnezzarin favourof
Sennacheribas the builder, we can show that Q. CurtiusRufuswas correctin sayingthat
an Assyrianking who conqueredBabylonwas responsible.
The one remainingproblemis to explainhow Nineveh came to be called Babylon,
and recent evidence has come to light showing that this could be the case. The
informationcomes from ancientastronomicaldatapreservedin Arabicsourcesand used
by Kepler. The standardcalculationfor the longest day was said to come from 'old
Babylon'and was widely used even in India, regardlessof latitude. The calculationwas
made not from the latitude of Babylon, but from the latitude of one of the northern
Assyriancities: Nineveh or Nimrud.
Sennacheribhimself describedthe gardenand its wateringsystem as a 'Wonderfor
all Peoples'. A similar phrase had been used by some of his predecessorsas kings of
Assyria, from which we may deduce that the idea of having Wonders of the World to
demonstrateman's most marvellousconstructionsdates back to the ancient Assyrians.
The Greekword theamata,'sight, wonder', used to describethe Seven Wonders of the
World, is a very close translationof the Babylonianword tabrati.
Sennacherib's palace garden was the end product of quite a long period of
development.His lengthyinscriptionadmitsthat therewas a previouspalaceon the site,
but that it was too small, and was not sufficientlybeautiful. This earlierbuilding was
almost certainlya palacelaid out by one Assur-resh-ishiand completed by his son, the
outstanding Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I (I I I4-I076 B.C.); beside the palace a garden
was laid out, wateredby a canalled fromthe RiverKhosr;and the gardenboasteda small
palace or pavilion. In some ways, therefore, it was a smaller, earlier version. These
constructions would then have been 400 years old; Sennacheribdescribes how the
foundationshadbeen underminedby the flowof riverwatertoo close to the building, and
by a swampyareadevelopingaroundit. He pulled palaceand gardendown completely,
and carriedout extensive canal-buildingwork to bring water in to the new palace and
gardensfrom a mountainriver.As for creatingan artificiallandscape,such a concepthad
recentlybeen put into practiceby his own fatherSargonII, whose capitalcity Khorsabad
was built on a virginsite. Therehe had re-createdthe changesof level that one expects in
an old city, whereover time depositsof old buildingrubblewould have been levelled off
at variousdifferentheights and new buildings set upon them.
Sennacherib'shanging gardens, wateredwith Archimedeanscrews from cisterns
fed by a canalwhich broughtwaterfroma mountainriver,representedmountainslopes
plantedwith variouskinds of aromatictrees, expresslyattemptingto imitatethe natural
landscapeof the Amanusmountainsin north-westSyria. There were severalpavilions,
describedin the inscriptionas smallpalaces,within the gardens.A small relief sculpture
in the British Museum almost certainly represents the garden under his grandson
Assurbanipal(668-627 B.C.)in its maturity(Figure 2). Although it is not in very good
condition, and may be only about a quarterof the originalwhole, the sculpturegives a
good ideaof how the gardenlooked. The palaceis on the left of the picture;a pathwith an
altar runs from the pavilion down to the bottom of the picture, and streams of water
trickleacrossit. A masonryaqueductwith pointedarchesbringswaterinto the gardenat
the middlelevel; but wateralsoflowsout fromunderone of the arches,so it is not entirely
clear whether the archedstructureextended back into the hill to support a terrace, or
IO0
ANCIENT
MESOPOTAMIAN
GARDENS
Figure2. Gardenat Nineveh,drawnfroma fragmentof reliefsculptureof
nowin the BritishMuseum,showingthegardendescribedby Sennacherib.
Assurbanipal
The cornerof Sennacherib's
palaceis justvisibletop left
Author'sdrawing:? StephanieDalley
whether it was a simple aqueduct built against the side of the hill and looking as if it
supportedit. The screwsare not shown; as Strabosays, they raisedwaterinvisibly; but
the mechanismsmay have been shown on part of the picture that is now missing. The
gardenseems to be bowl-shaped,like a Greektheatre, correspondingto the description
of Diodorus Siculus.
HERBS AND FLOWERS
Much has been describedabout trees, but very little about herbs and flowers. There is a
curious cuneiform text which lists herbs and vegetables in the garden of MerodachBaladanII, a contemporaryof SargonII and Sennacheribduring the height of Assyrian
garden design, who ruled from Babylon. The reason for the order of plants in fifteen
different sections is not certain, but it could correspondto an arrangementof plants in
different beds. The vocabulary,as far as we understandit, is highly specialized and
differentiated:there are at least five differentkinds of mint, for instance. Quite a few of
the plants have distinctly non-Babyloniannames. Although it is possible that all the
STEPHANIE
DALLEY
II
Figure3. Fragmentof reliefsculptureof Assurbanipal
showingraredetailsof flowers
in a huntingpark
Author'sdrawing:? StephanieDalley
plantsbelongto a physicgarden,eachone havinga medicinaluse, we cannotbe certainof
this, nor is the location specifiedas being in a palace. It expresslybelongs to the king.
Herbal medicine was certainlydeveloped to a high art in Babyloniaby that period, as
many esoteric medical texts demonstrate.The garden of Merodach-Baladanwas discussed in the pages of this journalby Dr Helen Leach ten years ago.
Leastknown for ancientMesopotamiais the vocabularyfor flowers.Certainly,they
were appreciated:Sargonii's courtiersoften hold a flowerin one hand; and a sculpture
showinglions at rest in a royalgarden(Figure3) definitelyshowsfloweringplants, one a
lily. Where art critics have praised certain relief sculptures of Assurbanipalfor their
modernuse of unfilledspace, I suspectthat detailssuch as flowerswere paintedon to the
smooth stone and have since disappeared.But as trees and shrubs supply the shade,
fragrance, and fruit that ancient Mesopotamiansrequired from their gardens, it is
possible that the art of growing garden flowers for their own value was less highly
esteemed.
PARADISE
AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN
The Greeksused a Persianword, paradeisos,for an enclosure,a garden, an orchardand
for paradiseand the Gardenof Eden. As we have seen, the idea of an enclosed areawas
fundamentalto the ancientMesopotamiangarden.In the Epic of Gilgamesh,on the other
hand, the forest of pines or cedars,which stood on the mountainslopes of the Lebanon,
was a sacredplace guardedby the giant Humbaba,appointedby the highest gods. The
ANCIENT
I2
MESOPOTAMIAN
GARDENS
hero Gilgameshand companionEnkidu committed sacrilegeby entering it, killing its
guardian,and cuttingdown its trees. In the ArabianNights'storyof Gilgamesh(the Tale
of Buluqiya), the giant guardsthe trees of the Gardenof Eden, where Solomon'sTomb
lies. This serves to emphasize that the Garden consisted of trees, and shows the
connectionof treeswith the Gardenof Eden, and with 'paradise'as the last restingplace
of great sages.
Does this mean that the 'original'gardenof Eden is to be locatedin Lebanon?Even
within the ancientMesopotamiantraditiontherearetwo differentplacesfor Humbaba's
forest; the Sumerianstory puts it in the Zagrosmountainsbetween Iraq and Iran. The
origin of the word Eden is uncertain; the SumerianEdin, with which it has been
compared,is an unlikely proposition,since it is a word for the arid semi-desertbeyond
the areasof cultivation.A North Syrianstate called Bit Adini in Assyriantimes has also
been suggested; certainlythe country there is beautiful, with a profusion of trees, but
there is no reasonto connect the words except a vague similarityof sound. It has been
suggestedthat Bahrein,an islandin the Arabian/PersianGulf, famousfor its fresh water
springs(but otherwiseratherdesolate)is the site of Eden becausesome Sumerianmyths
areset there, accordingto its identificationas ancientDilmun. This seems quite unlikely;
in Sennacherib'stime Dilmun was well known as a backwaterinhabitedby roughnecks
who still used coppertools in the Iron Age. For the ArabsCeylon, now Sri Lanka, then
known as Serendib,was equatedwith earthlyparadise,perhapsbecauseof the fabulous
gardensof Sigiriya,dating from the fifth centuryA.D.No doubt even in early antiquity
many differentlocationswere favouredby differentgroups of people, accordingto the
most famous gardensand groves in the vicinity.
The placeof ancientMesopotamiain gardenhistoryis fundamental.The identification of the elusive Hanging Gardensat Nineveh, alias 'old Babylon', helps to show the
characterof its tradition.This is quite differentfrom the formal, symbolical, layout of
later Persianand other Middle Easterngardens. It has its own symbolismand a special
appeal as the re-creationof paradise, the Garden of Eden. It belongs to a romantic
tradition,in creatingby artificialmeansa seeminglynaturallandscapeinto which an altar
or an elegant pavilionmight be inserted, as in a sacredgrove, a royal paradise.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am gratefulto the Scottishbranchof the GardenHistorySocietyfor invitingme to repeata
lecture(firstgivenat the Department
forContinuing
Educationin Oxford)duringthecourseof
which the solution to the problem of the Hanging Gardens began to occur to me. In this
bibliographyearlierdiscussionsof the problemare includedfor sourceinformationand for
historicalinterest.
NOTE
The authoris writing a detailedaccount of the Hanging Gardensfor a book.
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DALLEY
I3
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