Ishtar Gate, The inner city of Babylon, 575BC

Name: Xiaoyu Zeng

ARCH161 – M21 LEC(2587)

Ishtar Gate, The inner city of Babylon, 575BC

Decorative relief

Architect: Nebuchadnezzar II

Opened: 575 BC

Title: Ishtar Gate, The inner city of Babylon, 575BC

     

Introduction:

     The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. The Ishtar Gate was constructed by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II circa 575 BCE. It was the eighth gate of the city of Babylon (in present day Iraq) and was the main entrance into the city.It was excavated in the early 20th century and a reconstruction using original bricks is now shown in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin.

THE ISHTAR GATE & DEITIES

     The Ishtar Gate is named so, because it was dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, although Nebuchadnezzar pays homage to other Babylonian deities through various animal representations. The animals represented on the gate are young bulls (aurochs), lions, and dragons (sirrush). These animals are symbolic representations of certain deities: lions are often associated with Ishtar, bulls with Adad, and dragons with Marduk. Respectively, Ishtar was a goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex, Adad was a weather god, and Marduk was the chief or national god of Babylon.

Excavation & Reconstruction 

     The Ishtar gate was excavated between 1902 to 1914 CE during which 45 feet (13.7 m) of the original foundation of the gate was discovered. The material excavated by Robert Koldewey was used in a reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way. In 1930 CE, the reconstruction was finished at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany.     Due to size restrictions at the Pergamon Museum, the Ishtar Gate is neither complete nor its original size. The gate was originally a double gate, but the Pergamon Museum only utlizes the smaller, frontal part. The second gate is currently in storage. Originally, the gate had a door and roof made of cedar and bronze, which was not built for the reconstruction. A smaller reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate was built in Iraq under Saddam Hussein as the entrance to a museum. However, this reconstruction was never finished due to war.There are several museums in the world that have received portions of the Ishtar Gate: the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, the Detroit Institute of Art, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Louvre, Munich's State Museum of Egyptian Art, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Oriental Institute of Chicago, and many others.

PLAN: 

OTHERS: 

Map of Babylon - Koldewey

            The replica Ishtar Gate in Babylon in 2004

Reference: 

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate 

2. http://www.ancient.eu/Ishtar_Gate/