European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 13, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine rebuilding Babylon by John Rice associated press Babylon thai ancient fares of the kingdoms is rising again in the euphrates Plain in an iraqi restoration program. 2.500 years alter the hebrews lad from exile Wilh curses upon ii that Echo across history. Babylon 60 Miles South of Baghdad was the place o the Tower of Babel whose found Aliona Are still visible he stories of the three men in the fiery Furnace Daniel in the Ion s Den and the handwriting on the wad it also is the place of one of the seven wonders of the world the hanging gardens bul an iraqi researcher says he doubts they Ever existed As such from genesis to the last chapters of revelations Babylon was a byword for splendor and sin to the biblical authors whose views were coloured by the hebrews forced exile Here under King Nebuchadnezzar ii the Las great babylonian King never again shall she be inhabited wrote the Prophet Isaiah in chapter 13 of the old testament s Book of Isaiah after the hebrews were conquered. No Man shall dwelt in her through All the Ages. There no Arab shall pitch his Lent nor shepherds fold their hocks.,. Jackals shall occupy her mansions and wolves her gorgeous  Bui to modern iraqis. Babylon is a Monument to the Region s history As the Birthplace of writing and Law and they have begun a task Likely to Lake Many years to restore the City that dates from around 2000 . Officials have set no time limit nor do they give any idea How much it will Cost Iraq Itsell is considered by Many historians obo the Cradle of civilization dating is far  As 6,000 years to the Lime of the sians rians whose City states new Yor Trout photo Latte has been visible of the grins eur that was baby ton drawing at to it except Tor Miles of crumbling ten Iturea from Nebuchadnezzar s time and plan to unveil them this summer during a cultural fun vhf. Flourished As Early As 3500 . The iraqis have begun rebuilding several major structures from Nebuchadnezzar s time and plan to unveil them this summer in an International culture festival. The government considers the project so important it has exempted some iraqis from military duty in the War against Iran to work on it said site director Donny George Yokhana. The ancient Temple Oltsher has been re bricked re plastered and whitewashed. A new 4,000-Seal greek Heater is rising on the site of the old. Workmen on scaffolds Are Topping the ancient bricks of Nebuchadnezzar s Palace with blocks from the government Brick works. The Bitumen mentioned As mortar in the biblical Story of Babel is still visible Between the old baked mud bricks. In Nebuchadnezzar s time in the 6th Century ., Babylon was a sprawling City of perhaps a million people one of the most powerful and cultured places in the world the cily had been pillaged destroyed and rebuilt several times before the hebrews conquered by Nebuchadnezzar were brought there from Pale Shne in the late 6th Century it survived some 400 years after they left in 538 b a until the descendants of Alexander the great who conquered Babylon and died there moved their capital North to Seleucia in 274 0 c Babylon s lamed Early King was Hammurabi who codified its Laws 3,700 years ago and some t .200 years before Nebuchadnezzar. Hammurabi s City today lies below the ground water level Yokhana said to reach it he said archaeologists would a to lower the water Lovolo perhaps by diverting the euphrates most of Babylon s Brown Brick ruins Resl below a level of Iho ground dolled with clumps of yellow grass and Palm Trees but most of the exposed Brick was hauled away Over the centuries by the Modem City of Hilla a few Miles South Yokhana said. The european excavators who first explored the site also carried treasures away. One of Babylon s great monuments the ishtar Gate stands today in an East German museum. Only the inundations of the Gate some 120 feet across Are now visible in Babylon. Carved into the bricks Are reliefs of oxen and a mythical beast called the Mush Ishu Wilh the head of a Serpent body of a fish front legs of a lion and  legs of an Eagle. Some carvings have been scarred by Gra Lili that stand out Over he occasional original Cunie lorm inscriptions on a few old bricks. The hebrew tribes were both awed and appalled by Babylon. Babylon has been a Gold cup in the lord s  wrote Jeremiah. He also called it a land of idols that glories in its dreadful  Babylon the great the Mother of whores and every obscenity on Earth said the author of revelations. Bul said Moayyad Saeed Dilugi. Head of Iraq s antiquities and heritage organization Babylon has been  he maintained that Many stories in the Bible and elsewhere Are mixed up noting thai biblical writers sometimes confused the reigns of babylonian Kings. Dilugi directs the restoration work Al Babylon where he did research thai led him to doubt the hanging gardens i believe there were no hanging gardens Al All he suggested that ancient visitors May have been confused by the babylonian practice of decorating their towers Wilh Trees and plants once a year during a i Stival. The stars and stripes Page 13