King Nebuchadnezzar II :: History

King Nebuchadnezzar II Nebuchadnezzar II was a Babylonian king around 605 B.C. and was the second king in the Chaldean dynasty. He was born in 635 B.C. and died in the October of 562 B.C. He became King in 605 B.C. 3 weeks after his father’s death. He was 30 years old when he became king and reigned for 44 years. When he died his son, Amel-Marduk took over the throne. He wasn’t only a great king but a great warlord. He is known for conquering Jerusalem, deporting the king of Judah, Jehoiakim, and many of Jehoiakim’s people to Babylon. He and his father Nabopolassar commanded an army together north of Assyria. When he lead a campaign against the Egyptians and came back victorious, Babylon became the most powerful military force in the Middle East. When he was 25 he started acting as a military administrator. One year after his crowning he gets the oath of submission from the rulers of the local states in Syria and Palestine. When Nebuchadnezzar gets his first serious military defeat which was when he was fighting an Egyptian army, it weakened him politically and many of the states withdrew their oaths of submission. His other main achievements were revitalizing Babylon, rebuilding the temple of Marduk and a nearby ziggurat. The Median Wall was built under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The Ishtar Gate, one of the eight gates of the inner city of Babylon, was also built during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon dedicated the great Ishtar Gate to the goddess Ishtar. It was the main entrance into Babylon. His most famous achievement was creating the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Some people think that King Nebuchadnezzar built that gardens for his homesick wife from Medes. A historian in 450 B.C. named Herodotus wrote that the Hanging Garden outer walls had â€Å"a 56 mile length, a 80 foot thickness, and a 320 foot height†, but archaeologists claim that it’s outer walls had about a length of 10 miles and not nearly as high but still high enough to be very impressive. It was made with huge slabs of stone (stone was only used one other time in Babylon and that was on the north wall of the Northern Citadel). Within the walls there were fortresses and temples with huge statues of solid gold.