Legends say that the Hanging Gardens were built by Nebuchadnezzar
II (604-562 BC).While they are described by Greek historians
such as Berossus and Diodorus Siculus, Babylonian records do
not mention them. Modern historians argue that Alexander's soldiers
told stories of the wonders of Babylon's amazing gardens and
palm trees, Nebuchadnezzar's palace, the Tower of Babel, and
the ziggurats, and the imagination of poets and ancient historians
blended these elements together to produce one of the World
Wonders.Archaeologists lack enough evidence to reach a final
conclusion about the location of the Gardens, how they were
irrigated, and their appearance.
Ancient Greek sources describe the Garden as rectangular, with
arched valuts located on checkered cube-like foundations. The
highest terraces were reached by a stairway.
One Greek historian said, "The Hanging Garden has plants
cultivated above ground level, and the roots of the trees are
embedded in an upper terrace ... The whole mass is supported
on stone columns... Streams of water ... flow down sloping channels...
These waters irrigate the whole garden ... keeping the whole
area moist. Hence the grass is permanently green and the leaves
of trees grow firmly attached to supple branches..."
More recent archaeological excavations
at Babylon in Iraq uncovered the palace's foundation and
a Vaulted Building with thick walls and an irrigation well
near the southern palace. Archaeologists surveyed the southern
palace and reconstructed the Vaulted Building as the Hanging
Gardens. This disagrees with the Greek historian Strabo's
statement that the gardens were near the River Euphrates,
so others argue that the Gardens were located in the area
stretching from the River to the Palace. Recently discovered
25mm walls on the river banks may have been stepped to from
the terraces described in Greek references.