Editing Botanical garden (section)

==== Grand gardens of ancient history ====

[[File:Hanging Gardens of Babylon.jpg|thumb|The [[Hanging Gardens of Babylon]]<ref>{{harvnb|Dalley|1993|p=113}}</ref> with the [[Tower of Babel]] in the background, a 16th-century hand-coloured engraving by [[Martin Heemskerck]]]]

Near-eastern royal gardens set aside for economic use or display and containing at least some plants gained by special collecting trips or military campaigns abroad, are known from the second millennium BCE in [[ancient Egypt]], [[Mesopotamia]], [[Crete]], [[Mexico]] and [[China]].<ref>{{harvnb|Day|2010|pp=65–78}}</ref> In about 2800&nbsp;BCE, the Chinese Emperor [[Shen Nung]] sent collectors to distant regions searching for plants with economic or medicinal value.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1915|pp=185–186}}</ref> It has also been suggested that the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish colonization of Mesoamerica]] influenced the history of the botanical garden<ref name=Hya6912 /> as gardens in [[Tenochtitlan]] established by king [[Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl|Nezahualcoyotl]],<ref>{{harvnb|Toby Evans|2010|pp=207–219}}</ref> also gardens in [[Chalco (altépetl)]] and elsewhere, greatly impressed the Spanish invaders, not only with their appearance, but also because the indigenous [[Aztec]]s employed many more medicinal plants than did the classical world of Europe.<ref>{{harvnb|Guerra|1966|pp=332–333}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1915|p=187}}</ref>

Early medieval gardens in [[Islam in Spain|Islamic Spain]] resembled later botanic gardens, an example being the 11th-century Huerta del Rey garden of physician and author [[Ibn Wafid]] (999–1075 CE) in [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]]. This was taken over by garden chronicler [[Ibn Bassal]] (fl. 1085&nbsp;CE) until the Christian conquest in 1085&nbsp;CE. Ibn Bassal then founded a garden in Seville, most of its plants being collected on a botanical expedition that included Morocco, Persia, Sicily, and Egypt. The medical school of [[Montpellier]] was also founded by Spanish Arab physicians, and by 1250&nbsp;CE, it included a physic garden, but the site was not given botanic garden status until 1593.<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2006|p=57}}</ref>