Myth and reality
13 November 2008 – 15 March 2009
Discover the greatest city of
ancient Iraq through archaeology, history and art
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.
Babylon, Myth
and Reality
by I L Finkel and M J Seymour
£25 paperback
Buy
online
Babylon: City of
Wonders
by I L Finkel and M J Seymour
£9.99 hardback
Buy
online
Detail of a glazed brick relief of a lion from Babylon's
Processional Way. Reign of King Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 BC). On
loan from the musée du Louvre, Paris. © Photo RMN / Franck
Raux.
Supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation
Exhibition organised by the British
Museum,
the musée du Louvre and the Réunion des musées
nationaux, and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
