Babylon
Walls of Babylon
Gateway town: Hillah
Portrait
Babylon is thought to have been the largest city in the world twice over, and its Ishtar Gate now stands in Berlin while a 1980s brick reconstruction with Saddam Hussein's name stamped in the courses stands here. Understand that before arriving: the mound is history layered with its own bad restorations, and the Euphrates beside it is the oldest argument for why anyone settled at all.
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