Fig. C. / Jardins de Semiramis

Title

Fig. C. / Jardins de Semiramis

Description

Illustration of the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis, also known as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

ca. 1684

Artist

Mallet (1630-1706)

Alain Manesson Mallet (1630- 1706 ) was a French cartographer and engineer. He started his career as a soldier in the army of Louis XIV, became a Sergeant-Major in the artillery and an Inspector of Fortifications. He also served under the King of Portugal, before returning to France, and his appointment to the court of Louis XIV. His military engineering and mathematical background led to his position teaching mathematics at court. His major publications were Description de L'Univers (1683) in 5 volumes, and Les Travaux de Mars ou l'Art de la Guerre (1684) in 3 volumes. His Description de L'Universe contains a wide variety of information, including star maps, maps of the ancient and modern world, and a synopsis of the customs, religion and government of the many nations included in his text. It has been suggested that his background as a teacher led to his being concerned with entertaining his readers. This concern manifested itself in the charming harbor scenes and rural landscapes that he included beneath his description of astronomical concepts and diagrams. Mallet himself drew most of the figures that were engraved for this book.

Historical Description

According to Greek authors, the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis, also known as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, were an elaborate garden complex in Babylon on the Euphrates, in present-day Iraq. They were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The Greek mythical figure of Semiramis is sometimes equated with the Assyrian queen Shammuramat. According to ancient writers, the Hanging Gardens were located next to or on top of the palace and formed a square with a side length of 120 meters. The floors consisted of three layers: a layer of cane with lots of asphalt, a double layer of burnt bricks embedded in plaster mortar and thick lead plates at the top. This prevented moisture from penetrating. Humus could have been applied to this construction and different types of trees planted. Irrigation was possible from the nearby Euphrates. The Assyrian Empire had been successively expanded in the decades before the palace was built and extended over the territories between Persia and Egypt. Due to his many years of campaigning, Sennacherib had countless prisoners of war at his disposal, most of whom came from Babylonia, southern Turkey and Palestine, after battles against Elam had been fruitless. Irrigation was possible from the nearby Euphrates. The Assyrian Empire had been successively expanded in the decades before the palace was built and extended over the territories between Persia and Egypt. Due to his many years of campaigning, Sennacherib had countless prisoners of war at his disposal, most of whom came from Babylonia, southern Turkey and Palestine, after battles against Elam had been fruitless. With the enforced help of the prisoners, he was able to realize his project of establishing his personal great center of power in Nineveh. However, both the actual existence and the location of the gardens and their irrigation are not clearly documented and are disputed among scholars. Kai Brodersen, for example, assumes that these gardens never existed, but that an inaccessible palace garden of Nebuchadnezzar II took on ever more wonderful forms in the imagination of the authors over the centuries. Robert Koldewey, on the other hand, has proposed that the gardens were located in the north-eastern part of the southern palace of Babylon. Other scholars state that it is also possible that the description of the gardens describes the palace of Sennacherib in Nineveh. The Hanging Gardens were the palace gardens of the Assyrian king Sanherib, who lived around 100 years before the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. The south-west palace of Sennacherib in Nineveh was the capital of Babylon for over fifty years.