What happened to Babylon now?

Babylon Today After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States forces built a military base on the ruins of Babylon. The United Nations cultural heritage agency UNESCO reported the base caused “major damage” to the archaeological site. The site was reopened to tourists in 2009.



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The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 km (53 mi) south of Baghdad, and its boundaries have been based on the perimeter of the ancient outer city walls, an area of about 1,054.3 hectares (2,605 acres).

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After Alexander's death, however, the extent to which the empire was fought over saw the city's inhabitants flee, and Babylon steadily fell into ruin. In the 1980s, Babylon was extensively reconstructed by the Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein, so there is little of the original city that is still visible.

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But today, with renewed internal and foreign tourism and funding from the US embassy and other international donors, Babylon is coming back to life.

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Is Babylon inhabited today? No, but the site was once again open to tourists in 2009. However, after years of destruction, there is not much left of the historical ruins today. You can see the rebuilt ruins from Saddam Hussein's area.

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Historians have only been able to agree on one thing: The tower was said to reach up to the sky. Herodotus, the Father of History, described this symbol of Babylon as a wonder of the world. The Tower of Babel stood at the very heart of the vibrant metropolis of Babylon in what is today Iraq.

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Babylon was the capital of the Babylonian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. It was a sprawling, heavily-populated city with enormous walls and multiple palaces and temples. Famous structures and artifacts include the temple of Marduk, the Ishtar Gate, and stelae upon which Hammurabi's Code was written.

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The city from which Babylon draws its name was the capital city of the ancient Babylonian Empire in Mesopotamia. In the Bible's Book of Genesis, the famed Tower of Babel is constructed there. From this place, God scatters people across the earth and confuses their language.

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