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Transcript

The Ishtar Gate

By: Sophia Sharma

History Behind the Gate

History Behind the Gate

  • Dedicated to Ishtar
  • Goddess of fertility, love, and war
  • Created by King Nebuchadnezzar II in the early 500s BCE
  • Was part of a complete city refurbishment
  • Was the eighth gate in the city of Babylon

The Gate's Purpose

The Gate's Purpose

  • Provided an entryway into the great city of Balylon
  • Was created to bring beauty to the capital
  • For people to gaze upon the gate's wonder

Drawing of the Ishtar Gate and Surrounding Walls

Physical Characteristics

  • Located at the center of the northern wall
  • Around 38 feet high
  • Royal blue with yellow/cream decorations
  • Made of tiles and bricks
  • Had tiers
  • Had a vast antechamber on the southern side of the wall
  • Doors made of cedar decorated with bronze
  • Roof made from cedar
  • Foundation made of asphalt and brick

Tiles and Bricks

Tiles and Bricks

  • Glazed creamic tiles and bricks
  • The galze or enamel was directly to the

bricks

  • The Color
  • Mixed pigments with melted silica (a

kind of stone)

  • Blue color made of lapis lazuli

Tiles on the Ishtar Gate

Animals

  • The gate was decorated with figures of bulls and dragons.
  • These animals were placed in the gate to pay homage to certin gods and deities
  • Around 575 total dragons and bulls
  • 13 rows of decorated animals

Animals

Dragons

Dragons

  • Represented the god Marduk
  • Marduk was the chief or national god of Babylon

Dragon Decoration on the Ishtar Gate

Bulls

Bulls

  • Represented Adad
  • Adad was the god of weather

Excivated Bull Decorations on the Ishtar Gate

Processional Way

Processional Way

  • Brick paved avenue
  • Ran through the gatehouse
  • Lion figures decorated the way
  • Lions represented the Goddess Ishtar

Lion Decoration on the Processional Way

Dedication Plaque

Dedication Plaque

  • Written from King Nebuchadnezzar’s point of view
  • Explains the gates construction and purpose in detail

  • "Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, the faithful prince appointed by the will of Marduk, the highest of princely princes, beloved of Nabu, of prudent counsel, who has learned to embrace wisdom, who fathomed their divine being and reveres their majesty, the untiring governor, who always takes to heart the care of the cult of Esagila and Ezida and is constantly concerned with the well-being of Babylon and Borsippa, the wise, the humble, the caretaker of Esagila and Ezida, the firstborn son of Nabopolassar, the King of Babylon.

Both gate entrances of Imgur-Ellil and Nemetti-Ellil following the filling of the street from Babylon had become increasingly lower.

Therefore, I pulled down these gates and laid their foundations at the water table with asphalt and bricks and had them made of bricks with blue stone on which wonderful bulls and dragons were depicted.

I covered their roofs by laying majestic cedars length-wise over them. I hung doors of cedar adorned with bronze at all the gate openings.

I placed wild bulls and ferocious dragons in the gateways and thus adorned them with luxurious splendor so that people might gaze on them in wonder

I let the temple of Esiskursiskur (the highest festival house of Marduk, the Lord of the Gods a place of joy and celebration for the major and minor gods) be built firm like a mountain in the precinct of Babylon of asphalt and fired bricks."

Dedication Plaque on the Ishtar Gate

Excavation

Excavation

  • Excavated 1902 - 1914 by Robert Koldewey
  • 45 feet of the original

foundation of the gate was

discovered

  • Taken to Berlin in 1927 and

incorporated into a

recreation of the gate in the

Pergamon Museum

Picture of the Excavation Site

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