Babylon
Myth and reality
13 November 2008 – 15 March 2009
Exhibition overview
This exhibition is now closed
For two thousand years the myth of Babylon has haunted the
European imagination. The Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens,
Belshazzar’s Feast and the Fall of Babylon have inspired artists,
writers, poets, philosophers and film makers.
Over the past two hundred years, archaeologists have slowly
pieced together the ‘real’ Babylon – an imperial capital, a great
centre of science, art and commerce. Since 2003, our attention has
been drawn to new threats to the archaeology of Mesopotamia, modern
day Iraq.
Drawing on the combined holdings of the British Museum London,
the musée du Louvre and the Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris,
and the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin, the exhibition explores
the continuing dialogue between the Babylon of our imagination and
the historic evidence for one of the great cities of antiquity at
the moment of its climax and eclipse.