Editing Hanging Gardens of Babylon (section)

== <span id=“Descriptions”></span>Descriptions in classical literature ==
There are five principal writers whose descriptions of Babylon exist in some form today. These writers concern themselves with the size of the Hanging Gardens, their overall design and means of [[irrigation]], and why they were built.

[[Josephus]] ({{circa|37–100 AD|lk=no}}) quotes a description of the gardens by [[Berossus]], a Babylonian priest of [[Marduk]],<ref name="autogenerated1988">Finkel (1988) p.&nbsp;41.</ref> whose writing {{circa|290 BC|lk=no}} is the earliest known mention of the gardens.<ref name="AE2018"/> Berossus described the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II and is the only source to credit that king with the construction of the Hanging Gardens.<ref>Finkel (2008) p.&nbsp;108.</ref><ref name="Dalley1994">{{cite journal|last1=Dalley|first1=Stephanie|title=Nineveh, Babylon and the Hanging Gardens: Cuneiform and Classical Sources Reconciled|journal=Iraq|volume=56|year=1994|pages=45–58|issn=0021-0889|doi=10.2307/4200384|jstor=4200384}}</ref>
{{blockquote|text=In this palace he erected very high walls, supported by stone pillars; and by planting what was called a pensile paradise, and replenishing it with all sorts of trees, he rendered the prospect an exact resemblance of a mountainous country. This he did to gratify his queen, because she had been brought up in Media, and was fond of a mountainous situation.<ref>[http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/af/af05.htm ''Joseph. contr. Appion.''] lib.&nbsp;1. c.&nbsp;19.—''Syncel. Chron.'' 220.—''Euseb. Præp. Evan.'' lib.&nbsp;9.</ref>}}

[[File:Waldeck Hängende Gärten der Semiramis.jpg|thumb|300px|''Hanging gardens of [[Semiramis]]'', by H. Waldeck]]

[[Diodorus Siculus]] (active {{circa|60–30 BC|lk=no}}) seems to have consulted the 4th century BC texts of both [[Cleitarchus]] (a historian of [[Alexander the Great]]) and [[Ctesias of Cnidus]]. Diodorus ascribes the construction to a "Syrian king". He states that the garden was in the shape of a square, with each side approximately four [[plethron|plethra]] long. The garden was tiered, with the uppermost gallery being 50 [[cubit]]s high. The walls, 22 feet thick, were made of brick. The bases of the tiered sections were sufficiently deep to provide root growth for the largest trees, and the gardens were irrigated from the nearby [[Euphrates]].<ref>Diodorus Siculus II.10-1-10</ref>

[[Quintus Curtius Rufus]] (fl. 1st century AD) probably drew on the same sources as Diodorus.<ref>''History of Alexander'' V.1.35-5</ref> He states that the gardens were located on top of a [[citadel]], which was 20 [[stadion (unit)|stadia]] in circumference. He attributes the building of the gardens to a "Syrian king", again for the reason that his queen missed her homeland.

The account of [[Strabo]] ({{circa|64 BC&nbsp;– 21 AD|lk=no}}) possibly based his description on the lost account of [[Onesicritus]] from the 4th century BC.<ref>Strabo, ''Geography'' XVI.1.5, translation adapted from H.L. Jones, Loeb Classical Library edn (1961).</ref> He states that the gardens were watered by means of an [[Archimedes' screw]] leading to the gardens from the Euphrates river.

The last of the classical sources thought to be independent of the others is ''A Handbook to the Seven Wonders of the World'' by the [[paradoxography|paradoxographer]] Philo of Byzantium, writing in the 4th to 5th century AD (not to be confused with [[Philo of Byzantium|the earlier engineer of the same name]]).<ref>See Stephanie Dalley, "More about the Hanging Gardens", in ''Of Pots and Pans: Papers on the Archaeology and History of Mesopotamia and Syria as presented to [[David Oates (archaeologist)|David Oates]] on his 75th Birthday'', edited by L. al-Gailani-Werr, J.E. Curtis, H. Martin, A. McMahon, [[Joan Oates|J. Oates]] and J.E. Reade, (London), pp. 67–73 {{ISBN|1-897750-62-5}}.</ref> The method of raising water by screw matches that described by Strabo.<ref>Dalley (2013), p.&nbsp;40. Dalley bases her translation on Brodersen (1992) who uses an early Greek text. A previous translation by [[David Oates (archaeologist)|David Oates]], based on a Latin text, is found in Finkel (1988) pp.&nbsp;45–46.</ref> Philo praises the engineering and ingenuity of building vast areas of deep soil, which had a tremendous mass, so far above the natural grade of the surrounding land, as well as the irrigation techniques.