About the year 2700 B.C. a Semitic tribe from the north, the Akkadians, conquered the cities of the plain and absorbing the superior civilization of their subjects, founded a joint empire of Sumer-Akkad, that in its turn in time became the prey of Syrian Amorites. The city of Erech is today represented by a cluster of mounds at the site called Warka by the Arabs and known as Uruk to the ancient Akkadians of Mesopotamia. An ancient ziggurat has been uncovered there, along with many mounds and coffins that seem to indicate that Erech was once a burial ground of the Assyrian kings.

SHINAR

The original name of the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was Shinar later called Babylonia.

SUMERIANS

The original inhabitants of Assyria and Babylonia are known as Accadians (or Sumerians). They belonged to the Turanian or Ural-Altaic race, and were, therefore, of the same stock - that the Finns, Turks, and Magyars have descended.

The Sumerian Empire was another civilization contemporary with Ancient Egypt, but for geographical reasons not so homogeneous, was that of the land between the two rivers Euphrates and Tigris, to which the Greeks gave the name Mesopotamia. Here, some 5,000 years before our era, a number of small city-states existed on the Sumerian plain bordering on the Persian Gulf, which at that time ran inland nearly 130 miles beyond its present coast line.

Some idea of the brilliance and skill in craftsmanship of this Sumerian Age has been revealed by excavations. They carved portraits of themselves, and left primitive picture-signs that later developed into the wedge-shaped writing we call cuneiform. Royal graves, at Ur, belonging to a date at least 1200 years before Abraham, yielded up not only their dead, but golden crowns and combs, finely-worked ornaments in cornelian and lapis-lazuli, delicate inlaid carvings, silver-hilted daggers and copper-tipped pikes, etc.

The original home of the Sumerians is uncertain; but excavations on the site of their principal cities, Nippur, Lagish, Ur, Larsa, and Erich, reveal ways of life and thought already old and well-established. Mesopotamia did not possess the limestone that enabled Egyptians to create imperishable monuments, but sun-baked clay was ready to her hand, and at Nippur, just south of Babylon. People prayed in pyramid-shaped temples ziggurat . A ziggurat was built in several layers. Each layer was smaller than the lower one, at the top was the shrine of the god or goddess, in whose honor the ziggurat was built.

Sumerian workmen constructed to the orders of their priest-king a Ziggurat, or temple of bricks, in honour of their god Enlil, a building that could well have been the style of the

Tower of Babel.

The Bible tells the story of BABEL (probably a ziggurat) a famous tower that was being built up to heaven, (c. B.C. 2269) 100 years after the flood .

The whole race of mankind, having moved on to the south-west of Ararat, came to the plain of Shinar. Here, being all of one language and religion, they, perhaps at Nimrods suggestion, agreed to erect a tower of vast extent and height. It was there that Nimrod assumed kingship over Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, and where construction of the temple-tower of Babel (Genesis 10:9, 10; 11:2-8). Their design was, not to secure themselves against a second deluge, otherwise they had not built their tower in a low valley, but on the top of a mountain; but to get themselves a famous reputation. and to prevent their dispersion to replenish the earth. They had no quarries in that rich soil they therefore burnt, bricks for stone, and used slime for mortar. Three years it is said, they spent in preparing their materials, and for twenty-two years they carried on their building. Their wicked and rebellious attempt displeased the Lord; therefore He, onfused their language, so that they could understand one another. This effectually stopped the building, procured it the name of Babel or Confusion and compelled them to be dispersed into the known world.

The king of Shinar, Amraphel, was one of the confederates who took Abraham’s nephew Lot (c. B.C. 1933) captive. (Genesis 14:1, 9, 12) This territory was still called by its original name Shinar in the days (c. B.C. 1473) of Joshua (Joshua 7:21). It is referred to by the prophets Isaiah, Daniel, and Zechariah.

Babylonia was an ancient land in western Asia. It lay north of the Persian Gulf, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in a region once called Mesopotamia. Today, it is part of the country of Iraq.

The people of Babylonia and nearby regions grew crops, as well as hunting wild animals and gathering wild fruits and vegetables. The Babylonians dug irrigation canals to carry water into the fields from the rivers, the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates were a good place for growing crops. The main crops were wheat, barley, dates, and sesame. The people used oxen to pull their plows and wheeled carts, and donkeys for transportation.

Babylonians also traveled by water, using small boats along the rivers. Sometimes, people just exchanged goods - for example, five bags of wheat for one ox. But the Babylonians also used money. Records of buying and selling show that merchants traded over a large area. Their money was gold. silver, and copper, shaped into thin ribbons. Babylonian merchants also worked out a series of weights, used to measure amounts of goods like grain and cotton.

Gradually, these settled areas grew into towns and cities. In fact, Babylonia was named after Babylon, which by 1800 B.C. (about 3.800 years ago), was an important kingdom. It remained strong until about 1100 B.C. Nimrod, the first king of Babylon, and perhaps the earliest king in the world, is generally said to have founded the city. Belus, who by some is made contemporary with Shamgar the judge of Israel, and Queen Semiramis, are said to have further enlarged and adorned it: but Nebuchadnezzar, supplemented, perhaps, by Nitocris his daughter. in-law, finished it, and made it one of the wonders of the world.

Babylon, was one of the most splendid cities that ever existed. Its form was an exact square. It was built in a large plain of a circumference of 480 furlongs, or 60 miles, each side 15 miles long. The walls were in thickness 87 feet, in height 350; on them were built 315 towers, or, according to others, 250, three between each gate, and seven at each corner, at least where the adjacent morass reached not almost to the wall.

A row of houses faced the wall on every side, with a street of 200 feet between them and it. Thus the whole city was divided into 676 squares, each of which was four furlongs and a half on every side. All around these squares stood the houses fronting the streets, and the empty space within served for gardens and other necessary purposes. But it does not appear that all these squares were ever wholly built upon and inhabited; though from Curtius's account of it as it stood when Alexander was there we-cannot safely infer what part, might have been inhabited in its, time of meridian lustre, before Cyrus took it.

Religion The inhabitants of Babylon, and the places adjacent, were excessively credulous, superstitious, and debauched. The idols of the Babylonians were Bel, Nebo, Nergal,. Merodach, and their goddesses, Succothbenoth. The Idolatry, that is so prevalent in every place, appears to have had its origin in Babylon. The Babylonians also pretended to great skill in astrology, sooth-saying, and magic, Daniel 2: 27; 4:7; Isaiah. 47:12-13. From there this pretended science spread into Canaan, Isaiah 2:6: if not into Egypt. The Babylonians believed that people were put on Earth to serve the goddesses and gods. In general. the gods were harsh and the goddesses were gentle.

Babylonian Writing We know much about Babylonia because the Babylonians had a system of writing. It was developed by the Sumerians, early settlers In Mesopotamia, before 3000 B.C. The Sumerians did not write on paper, because paper was not invented until 3.000 years later. Instead, they made marks in lumps or flat pieces of clay. Thousands of these clay tablets have been found in Babylonia. They are marked with wedge-shaped writing called cuneiform. Archaeologists have learned how to read the cuneiform writing.

The Babylonians kept many records, including a list of their kings. This list served as a kind of calendar. Years were identified by the king who was then ruling. For example, one year might be known as the fifth year of King Hammurabi's rule. Other records kept track of events in the heavens. such as the movement of planets and eclipses of the sun. Babylonian priests studied these records to help predict the future. Merchants also kept records of what they bought and sold.

The people of Babyionia were divided into three main classes. The highest class included the nobles and the priests. Those In the middle were the common people, such as the farmers, merchants, and crafts workers. At the bottom were slaves.

One of the great Babylonian rulers was Hammurabi (c. 2000 B.C.). a contemporary of Abraham, is usually identified with the biblical Amraphel, King of Shinar. A warrior who proclaimed himself "the King who caused the four quarters of the world to render obedience"; and after a prolonged struggle with his chief rival, Rim-Sin, King of Larsa, he certainly remained lord of the Babylonian plain.

Yet he is better remembered to-day in world history as the first of a long line of royal lawgivers who based their authority on established justice. Tablets discovered in Babylonia contained the Code of Hammurabi, a list of about 270 laws that he developed for his people.Hammurabi's laws, engraved in Semitic characters on a stone eight feet high, reveal in their restrictions and prohibitions the picture of an agricultural and commercial community already so complex that it was necessary to adjudicate between landlord and tenant, employer and employed, doctor and patient, the ruler of the capital and his provincial governors.

Many of Hammurabi's laws would seem harsh to us today. For instance, one law says that if a son strikes his father, the son's hand will be cut off. The Code of Hammurabi made it clear that not all Babylonians were equal. For instance, if a nobleman put out the eye of another nobleman, his own eye was put out. If a nobleman put out the eye of a commoner, he only had to pay a fine.

The impression of complexity is further deepened by a study of the clay-tablet letters dictated by the king to his secretary, dealing with subjects as various as sheep-shearing, floods, and the adjustment of the awkward Sumerian moon calendar,
"I established law and justice in the land and promoted the welfare of the people."

For this endeavour Hammurabi was remembered with affection arid pride in the Land of the Two Rivers long after his death, when evil days of civil war and invasion destroyed the first empire of Babylon, and another Semitic people the Assyrians, whose home cities were Assur and Nineveh on the Upper Tigris, began to dominate the plain.

Later History After 1100 B.C., Babylonia was conquered by other peoples. Babylon. however, remained an important city for hundreds of years. A ruler in the 600s B.C. built a series of terraces on which flowers and trees were planted. These "Hanging Gardens" of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

Babylon fell October 5, 539 B.C.E. (Gregorian calendar), when before the invading Medo-Persian armies under the command of Cyrus the Great. The Jews, after the destruction of their capital, had famous synagogues, at Babylon, by the Rabbins of which their large Talmud was framed, (Psalm 87:4; Peter 5:13;) Peter composed his first letter while at Babylon. (1Peter 5:13;) possibly also his second letter. The ruins of Babylon extend over a vast area in the form of a triangle. Several mounds are scattered over the area. Tell Babil (Mujelibe), in the northern part of the triangle, preserves the ancient name and is located about 6 miles North East of Hilla, Iraq