Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1893 — Nebuchadnezzar’s Hanging Gardens. [ARTICLE]

Nebuchadnezzar’s Hanging Gardens.

The “hanging gardens of Babylon" were built by Nebuchadnezzar to gratify his wife, Amyitis, a native of Media, who longed for something in this flat country to remind her of her mountain home. They consisted of an artificial mountain, 400 feet on each side, rising by successive terraces, to a length which overtopped the walls of the city. The terraces themselves were formed of a succession of piers, the tops of which were covered by flat stones sixteen feet long and four feet wide. Upon these were spread beds of matting; then a thick layer of bitumen, covered with sheets of lead. Upon this solid pavement earth was heaped, some of the piles being hollow so as to afford depth for the roots of the largest trees. Water was drawn from the river so as to irrigate these gardens which thus presented to the eye the appearance of a mountain clothed in verdure.—[New Orleans Times-Democrat.