The hanging gardens of Babylon, also known as the hanging gardens of Semiramis, were for centuries one of the Ancient World Wonders, and their disputed existence intrigued architects and historians for decades. The descriptions of the gardens were not only exaggerated but also described as a true paradise impossible to reconstruct.
The gardens were said to be built by Nebuchadnezzar II in 600 B.C to cheer up his homesick wife, Amytis. The real name for the Gardens comes from the Greek word ÃÂÃÂkremastosÃÂÃÂ and the Latin word ÃÂÃÂpensilisÃÂÃÂ, which means not really ÃÂÃÂhangingÃÂÃÂ, but ÃÂÃÂoverhangingÃÂÃÂ, which could mean the Gardens hung from a group of terraces or balconies. The Greek geographer Strabo, who described the gardens in the first century B.C, wrote that the gardens consisted of vaulted terraces raised one above another, and resting upon cube-shaped pillars.
Although no records have ever been found accounting the gardensÃÂÃÂ existence, tablets found at the city of Nineveh describe similar architectural marvels, and ruined Mesopotamian palaces have similar sections, but in a much smaller scale.
These tablets by historians who could have had an approximate overview of these gardens, which differs among historians, since no-one can be totally sure about them. Heredoctus (one of many historians, who described the hanging gardens of Babylon) said the whole mass was supported on stone columns, where streams of water emerging from elevated sources flew down sloping channels. These waters irrigated the whole garden saturating the roots of plants and keeping the whole are moist. Hence, the grass was permanently green and the leaves of trees grew firmly attached to supple branches.
Personally, I believe that although some historians assume the Gardens are a legend, the story remains fascinating, interesting and that involves huge chunks of architectural mastery, and since it has been a point of study for so many generations of people, the Gardens have been an example for global culture and will remain so until their existence is definitely discarded, or the Gardens are rebuilt for our own pleasure and enjoyment.
(340 words)Source : Wikipedia