Neo-Babylonian Empire: A Visual History

The Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire was founded in 626 BC when Nabopolassar took Babylon from the Assyrians; with the Medes he destroyed Nineveh in 612 and inherited Assyria's western empire. Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562) defeated Egypt at Carchemish, took Jerusalem in 597 and destroyed it in 586, deporting the Judaeans, and rebuilt Babylon on a colossal scale with the Ishtar Gate, the Etemenanki ziggurat and the walls Herodotus marvelled at. After palace coups the last king Nabonidus spent a decade in Arabia; Cyrus the Great took Babylon almost without a fight in 539 BC.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Neo-Babylonian Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Neo-Babylonian territory

Timeline of the Neo-Babylonian Empire

1. 626 BC
   Nabopolassar takes Babylon
2. 612 BC
   Nineveh destroyed
3. 605 BC
   Carchemish; Nebuchadnezzar king
4. 597 BC
   First capture of Jerusalem
5. 586 BC
   Jerusalem and the Temple destroyed
6. 562 BC
   Nebuchadnezzar dies
7. 556 BC
   Nabonidus
8. 539 BC
   Cyrus takes Babylon

Nabopolassar and the fall of Assyria

Babylonia had rebelled against Assyria repeatedly. The Chaldean Nabopolassar took the throne in 626 and, allied with Cyaxares of Media, destroyed Ashur (614), Nineveh (612) and the last Assyrian army at Harran (609). His son Nebuchadnezzar smashed the Egyptians at Carchemish in 605 and hurried home to be crowned when his father died.

Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar campaigned in Syria and Palestine almost every year, took Jerusalem in 597 and, after Zedekiah's revolt, destroyed the city and Solomon's Temple in 586, beginning the Babylonian Exile. Tyre held out for 13 years. At home he rebuilt Babylon: the blue-glazed Ishtar Gate and Processional Way, the 90-metre ziggurat, the vast palace and double walls, and possibly the Hanging Gardens for his Median queen. Babylon became the largest city in the world.

Nabonidus and Cyrus

Three kings followed in seven years; Nabonidus (556-539), an elderly devotee of the moon god Sin, restored ancient temples, excavated foundations of earlier kings, and spent ten years at the oasis of Tayma in Arabia while his son Belshazzar governed. Priests of Marduk resented him. Cyrus defeated the Babylonian army at Opis and entered Babylon in October 539; the Cyrus Cylinder proclaims him Marduk's chosen restorer, and the Jews were allowed home.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Neo-Assyrian Empire (911 BC to 609 BC)
• Median Empire (678 BC to 549 BC)
• Achaemenid Empire (550 BC to 330 BC)
• Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (Saite period) (664 BC to 525 BC)
• Lydia (680 BC to 546 BC)
• First Babylonian Empire (1,894 BC to 1,595 BC)
• Elamite Empire (2,700 BC to 539 BC)

8 surprising things about the Neo-Babylonian Empire

1. The Ishtar Gate, rebuilt in Berlin's Pergamon Museum, is covered in glazed bricks with lions, bulls and dragons.
2. The Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders, have never been found at Babylon; some scholars think they were really at Nineveh.
3. Nabonidus dug up foundation deposits of kings 2,000 years older and has been called the first archaeologist.
4. The biblical Belshazzar's feast and the writing on the wall took place, per Daniel, on the night Babylon fell.
5. Nebuchadnezzar's madness in the Book of Daniel, eating grass like an ox, may reflect Nabonidus's absence in the desert.
6. The Etemenanki ziggurat, dedicated to Marduk, is the likely model for the Tower of Babel.
7. The Cyrus Cylinder is often called the first charter of human rights, a claim historians treat with caution.
8. Babylon's outer walls were so wide, Herodotus claimed, that a four-horse chariot could turn round on top.

Sources

• Babylonia Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Neo-Babylonian Empire Wikipedia
• Neo-Babylonian Empire World History Encyclopedia
• Paul-Alain Beaulieu, A History of Babylon 2200 BC-AD 75 (2018) Wiley Blackwell

Back to all empires and wars