The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The gardens were built by King Nebuchadnezzar II. 
He ruled Babylon from 605 to 562 BC. The Hanging Gardens do not exist today. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were located on the East of the bank of the River Euphrates, about 48km south of Baghdad, Iraq. It was covered with trees, flowers, lawns, plants, fountains, pools and miniature waterfalls. In reality, the gardens did not hang, but grew on the roofs and terraces of the royal palace in Babylon.
King Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon for Amytis, his Median wife. Amytis came from a place where there were mountainous plains all around in the barren lands of Mesopotamia. She missed the greenery of her homeland. King Nebuchadnezzar II wanted to recreate Amytis’s homeland for her.
He built a terraced garden using mud, sun-dried bricks and stone. Ox-carts and river barges were used to carry plants and trees to the gardens. Each level had flowers, trees and other plants and the garden looked very much like a real mountain.
Babylon was an ancient city in Mesopotamia. It was the capital of Babylonia in the second and first millennia BC. The ruins of Babylon can be found east of the Euphrates about 88.5km south of Baghdad, in present-day Iraq.
The name Babylon means ‘gate of God’. Babylon was a dry and barren desert. Once King Nebuchadnezzar II built the garden and planted the trees and plants to make his Queen happy, he was faced with the problem of watering it. The only major water source in the city was the river Euphrates But transporting water from the river bank to the high terraced garden was not an easy task.
The king employed the prisoners of war to water the gardens. It is assumed by historians that probably a chain pump system was used to lift water to the various levels of the terraced garden. The pump had two large wheels, one above the other, connected by a chain. Buckets hung on the connected chain and as the wheels turned, the buckets would go down and get filled with water. The water in the bucket was then poured into a pool at the top.
The empty buckets were then taken back and the cycle continued. Without the use of the chain pump, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon would have never flourished. Besides, the chain pump system, other technologies were also used during the construction of the Hanging Gardens.
We have to protect this treasure for our future generations.
Shrruthiy Priyadarshan
Grade - 10, BT/ Vincent Girls’ High School
Batticaloa