Ishtar Gate

Posted by crow_soup (San Francisco, United States) on 12 December 2006 in Lifestyle & Culture and Portfolio.

The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadrezzar II on the north side of the city. Through the gate ran the Processional Way which was lined with walls covered in lions on glazed bricks (about 120 of them). Statues of the gods were paraded through the gate and down the Processional Way each year during the New Year's celebration. A reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way was built at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin out of material excavated by Robert Koldewey and finished in the 1930s. It stands 47 feet high and 100 feet wide.