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Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (r. 605-562 BC) was still very young when he conquered Palestine and sent many Jews into exile around his capital city. He would reign for several more decades, becoming the most powerful monarch of the Babylonian empire, dominating the Middle East from modern Iraq.
It may be during this long reign that the famous clay tablet called the “Babylonian Map of the World” was crafted. Sketched with circle and ruler, the schematic, circular drawing shows a large circular landmass surrounded by the sea, with originally eight triangles arranged around the circle of the sea to form a star shape. On the landmass, various rivers and mountain ranges are indicated as well as cities and regions (Assyria, Urartu).
It’s possible that the Greek Anaximander saw this map, or a rendition of this map, before he made his own, slightly more comprehensive version a few years later. In any case, the Babylonian map is a perfect expression of Babylonian-centrism, perfectly understandable in a city that was one of the oldest of the world, as well as the largest, richest and most powerful just at that time: in it, Babylon is a large rectangle that stretches across the river Euphrates, slightly to the north of the center of the map, but the most prominent landmark.
Indeed, the ruins of 6th century BC Babylon are spread over more than eight square kilometers, forming the largest archaeological site in the Middle East. Like others in the region, the city was a narrow labyrinth of short buildings, many of them surrounded by courtyards invisible from the outside so that women could be move freely and work there[1], only larger and with more grandiose monuments than any other in the world.
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