HANGING GARDENS
A long time ago, King Nebuchadnezzar lived in a land called Babylonia.
He married a beautiful princess from another land and brought her to
Babylon, the capital of Babylonia. The new queen grew homesick for the
mountains and gardens of her country.
So the king called together his architects and craftsmen to plan the
most beautiful gardens the world had ever seen.
The work began. The king’s men built tall walls and terraces, and there
they put in flowers, fruit trees, and fountains. The gardens were the
highest anyone had ever seen. They were as high as a building with
thirty-five stories.
Building the gardens wasn’t easy without machinery. Men had to haul
rocks and stones from far away to build the walls and terraces and
fountains.
And to keep the gardens green and the fountains flowing, they had to
pump water in from a faraway river.
We don’t know for certain that this story is true, but we do know from
old writings that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon did exist.
In the country of Iraq, men called archaeologists have found empty
wells, ditches, and cellars which must have once been part of the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The word “hanging” is confusing because the
gardens did not really hang. “Hanging” may have come from a Latin word
that meant balconies and terraces. The picture shows how one artist
imagined this wonder of the ancient world.
