Listening to the US archaeologist, I felt catapulted into an Indiana Jones movie. Only he wore a "Welcome to Egypt" Gilligan hat instead of a sweet fedora. He had the satchel, the local head garb worn as a scarf/ascot, and was a real archaeologist. However, no whip or 5 o'clock (and then some) shadow, so he lost major cool points. However, walking around the ruins, I felt like all of a sudden Nazi troops would appear, or the roof of some temple would be discovered and opened releasing gas and lightning, or I'd hear "snakes....why'd it have to be SNAKES?!?!" Raiders of the Lost Ark not withstanding, we were among buildings built in 600 BC, and earlier. Some were 3500 years old! Walking a good 4 km, we walked passed guard towers erected in the Invasion of 2003 (since this land had been invaded multiple times throughout history), the footprint of the Tower of Babylon, and a pit that had tons of pottery shards scattered about. From high up on this vantage point we could see the old palace of Nebuchadnezzar that had been rebuilt in the 80's by Saddam Hussein. Brick by brick, he rebuilt the palace ON TOP of the buried, existing walls and foundations. I learned that in 1900, the Germans excavated this place, only to BURY it again to hide it during the wars. Yup, Indiana Jones easily could have been here too. It was funny but the Indiana Jones theme song was echoing in my brain as we walked around.
Now, at the palace, there is a fenced off area surround the ORIGINAL King's Road. The pavement still exists, in its original form, albeit littered with some water bottles here and there. We had an Iraqi guide who worked on the excavation and rebuilding between 87-03. Hearing a Muslim man refer to the Bible and Torah and talk about Daniel and Ezekiel and others was pretty surreal. He took us down hallways and into various rooms, the palace was labyrinth. He showed us original sun baked bricks that had cuneiform inscriptions indicating it was laid during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I. He showed us the throne room that had held the kings of Babylon as well as saw the reign and death of Alexander the Great. I was able to gaze on the wall (or the recreation) that God Himself scribed with his finger during a royal feast. And the Muslim mentioned this! Incredible! After exiting the palace, we walked amongst the ramparts of the city walls. a maze of tunnels and pathways. Original masonry still intact. The walls were so thick and so tall, it was intimidating as rubble, a soldier could only imagine what it would have a) been like to gaze upon them as an invading army with primitive siege weaponry, and b) the horror of the occupying army watching the invaders breaching your massive and presumed impenetrable defenses. Massive engineering overcome by massive will power. Following that, we saw the Ishtar Gate, with the 3d bricks. These are multiple bricks that have protrusions that when laid together into the wall, create the image of animals. Now the Ishtar gate was reserved for the priest and he was the most powerful man in Babylon. More powerful than even the King. I was disappointed that i couldn't locate the site of the furnace, or the lion's den. However, the CURRENT Ishtar gate is built on top of the original, which due to hydroelectric project on the Euphrates has raised the water table and covers the original walls.
After that, we drove up to Saddam's palace. WOW. This place was MASSIVE. from a basketball court sized room over looking the Euphrates with floor to ceiling windows offering a 180 degree view to the roof some 50-70 feet above the ground, the tallest point for MILES. Hidden staircases and rooms and bathrooms EVERYWHERE. And also not a single pane of glass left intact, 99% of the doors gone, and TONS of pigeon crap was everywhere. The walls were tagged with Arabic graffiti and every light switch, outlet, and the covers were gone. Oddly, most of the marble was still intact. One of the bathroom door jambs had a pull up bar installed when the military used it as a base during the invasion.
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