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Which Babylonian king is traditionally credited with building the Hanging Gardens?
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Babylon
A reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate at the ruins of Babylon, near modern Al-Ḥillah, Iraq.
Traditionally, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are attributed to King Nebuchadnezzar II, who is said to have commissioned them to comfort his wife, Amytis, by recreating the mountainous landscape of her homeland.1
Alternatively, some traditions credit the semilegendary queen Sammu-ramat with their construction. However, it is important to note that the existence and location of the gardens remain unverified by archaeology. Modern research has led some scholars to propose that the gardens may have actually been built by the Assyrian king Sennacherib at Nineveh, suggesting that classical sources may have conflated the two locations.1