It is to the latter that we owe the story of the construction of these gardens by Nebuchadnezzar II in order to remind his wife, Amytis of Media, of the wooded mountains of his native country, around Ecbatane.

During the rediscovery and excavations of Babylon (in present-day southern Iraq) at the beginning of the 20th century, the location of the hanging gardens was sought. But while the other mythical constructions of the city (Tower of Babel/ziggurat, walls, royal palaces) have been found by archeology and the translation of ancient inscriptions, this has not been the case for the gardens. Contemporary researchers have therefore made various proposals: some have sought to locate the possible locations of the hanging gardens in the city, while others have questioned their existence, placing them in another city (Nineveh) or relegating them to the rank of invention developed by ancient authors from the royal Babylonian gardens.

Written sources

The hanging gardens appear in the texts of a handful of Greek authors and a Roman. They do not fail to pose difficulties because they are often indirect sources, quotations from other authors who would have been direct witnesses of the monument but whose original writings have disappeared. In addition, another major problem is the fact that the Hanging Gardens do not appear in the description of Babylon left by Herodotus, who nevertheless is said to have visited the city and left a long account of it. In the end, five texts hold our attention, and in particular the first two:

Diodorus of Sicily (1st century BC) left in his Historical Library the most detailed description of the gardens, which would have been taken from the biography of Alexander the Great left by Clitarch of Alexandria (around of 300 BC), who is said to have visited Babylon, or from the writings of Ctesias of Cnidus who was a doctor at the Persian court and therefore also resided in the city.

The source judged to be the most reliable by supporters of the existence of the Hanging Gardens is the short quotation from Berossus by Flavius ​​Josephus in the 1st century in Against Apion and the Jewish Antiquities. Berossus being a priest originating from the great temple of Babylon who wrote a very well-informed work, the Babyloniaka, to make his civilization of origin better known to the Greeks, it can be considered that the fact that he mentions the gardens makes their existence indisputable. Nevertheless, the quoted passage has been called into question: it is not a direct quotation from Berossus, because Flavius ​​Josephus only knows this author through a summary, that of Alexander Polyhistor, and the mention of the hanging gardens would have could have been added by the latter from Clitarch's description. But a precision like the mention of Nebuchadnezzar II as builder of the gardens would plead for the attribution to Berossus who could have had access to Babylonian sources unknown to current researchers.

The Roman historian Quinte Curce in his History of Alexander (1st century) wrote a detailed description of the gardens taken from Greek authors (Clitarch, Ctesias or Diodorus).

The geographer Strabo (1st century BC-1st century), also using other Greek sources (including Onesicritus?), wrote a long passage on the hanging gardens in his Geography.

Finally, the consecration of the hanging gardens as a "wonder of the world" comes from the list left by Philo of Byzantium in his work De septem orbis spectaculis, the dating of which remains debated, since if the author lived in the 3rd century BC. some passages of the work attributed to him could have been written in the 4th century.

More generally, the descriptions of Greco-Roman authors are generally interested in the city of Babylon as a sort of ancient "megalopolis", and emphasize another of its monuments, namely its walls, the size of which is mythologized. (22 meters according to Diodorus and Strabo, 100 meters according to Herodotus), as much or even more than on the hanging gardens. These are certainly passed down to posterity as the "marvel" of Babylon by the success of Philo's list, but they did not specifically hold the attention of the ancient descriptions of the city if we judge by the little mentions to which they are subject.

Source: en.wikipedia.org