Babylon set to emerge from war and tyranny

IT WAS one of the world's first, greatest cities – a place where astronomers mapped the stars millennia ago and kings created an early code of law and planted what became known as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Yet little remains of the ancient settlement, as seen during a trip to Babylon on one of the few permits issued by Iraq's government since the 2003 US-led invasion. The site has the aura of a theme park touched by the ambition of the dictator Saddam Hussein and the opportunism of looters: Modern walkways run beside crumbling old walls, a reconstructed Greek theatre and a palace built for Saddam atop an artificial hill.

Now global institutions, led by the UN, are documenting the damage and considering how to fix it. A Unesco report due early next year will cite Saddam's construction but focus, at the Iraqi government's request, on damage done by US forces from April to September 2003, and by Polish troops deployed there for more than a year afterwards.

The United States, which turned Babylon into a military base, says the looting would have been worse but for its troops. It also says it will help rehabilitate Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. It will fund an effort by the World Monuments Fund and Iraq's state antiquities board.

Archaeologists hope the effort will lead to new digging to follow up on the excavations done by a German team in the early 1900s. "The site is tremendously important," said Gaetano Palumbo, of the fund. Yet in its present state, Babylon is "hardly understandable as a place where so much happened in history".

Past excavations focused on the monuments such as temples, but domestic quarters remain largely unexplored. Mr Palumbo said new methods could reveal facts or reinterpret findings from the earlier excavations.

For decades, Babylon has been virtually off-limits to the world whose culture it helped create.

First came Saddam's attempt to create a tourist attraction aimed at glorifying his own image, which led to shoddy reconstruction of ancient sites and building of restaurants and other facilities in the 1980s. Most international experts stayed away because of the regime's reputation, the eight-year war with Iran and UN sanctions.

Next, Babylon suffered in the chaotic days after Saddam's downfall in 2003. Archaeologists say looters took museum exhibits and burned excavation reports and other studies.

Then came the occupation by US and Polish troops. Heavy vehicles and machinery pounded ancient brick and sand rich with pottery fragments. Troops built a helipad, carved out parking areas and trenches, destroyed part of an ancient brick road called the Processional Way and filled bags with sand containing bones and pottery.

There has been no extensive, large-scale archaeological work here in nearly a century.

There is no trace of the Hanging Gardens, said to have been built in about 600BC for the wife of King Nebuchadnezzar II, who longed for the trees of her native Persia, or the tower believed to have inspired the Bible's tale of Babel. King Hammurabi's code of law, inscribed on a giant stone slab almost 4,000 years ago, has long sat in the Louvre in Paris. The city's symbol – the Gate of Ishtar, named after a Babylonian goddess – is in Berlin's Pergamon museum.

At the site, near the Euphrates River about 60 miles south of Baghdad, journalists saw a gaudy reconstruction of the Ishtar gate built during Saddam's time, plus part of the original gate's foundations. The foundations hold unglazed depictions of a dragon, some appearing damaged.

Although Iraq's government is involved in the project, a spokesman said it had more pressing priorities. And it could take years for Babylon to get on Unesco's list of World Heritage sites, a prestigious designation Iraq can only seek after implementing conservation codes.

John Curtis, keeper of Middle East collections at the British Museum and a contributor to the upcoming report, was one of the first to document post-invasion damage in December 2004. Four years on, he believes infrastructure and stability are key to new exploration.

"It would be a great mistake to rush into excavations without appropriate resources at hand," he warned.

BACKGROUND

BABYLON is the most famous of Iraq's archaeological sites, but others come close:

• The Sumerian city of Ur, near Nasiriyah in the south and, according to the Bible, the home of Abraham. The ruins contain a largely intact ziggurat, or temple. A team led by the British Museum concluded some damage may have been done by coalition troops from nearby Tallil air base. Access is now restricted.

Uruk, a Sumerian city south-east of Baghdad where the British Museum says the earliest writing was found. It appears on clay tablets later used as building foundations.

Ctesiphon, capital of the Persian empire, on the Tigris River south-east of Baghdad. In the 1991 Gulf war, shock waves from bombing cracked the ruins, which include the world's widest single-span brick arch.

• Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire, in northern Iraq. The Book of Jonah mentions the city, said to have had fine gates and canals.

• Nimrud, another ancient Assyrian city near Mosul. Digs have uncovered huge sculptures of winged lions.