Ishtar Gate
Ischtar-Tor
Interesting facts
- The Berlin reconstruction shows only the smaller front section of what was a double gate; the larger rear section was too big for the museum building and remains in storage.
- Each striding lion on the Processional Way was assembled from 46 moulded bricks laid in 11 rows.
- German excavators removed 118 of the 120 lion panels that once lined the Processional Way.
- In Berlin, hundreds of crates of glazed fragments were desalinated and pieced together, with gaps filled by new bricks fired in a specially built kiln to match the colours.
- The joints between the glazed bricks are remarkably fine, between about one and six millimetres wide.
- A dedication inscription of Nebuchadnezzar on the gate wall measured about 15 metres tall and 10 metres wide and ran to 60 lines.
- The Processional Way has been traced for more than 800 metres, and in places it was about 20 metres wide.
- The New Year festival whose procession passed through the gate lasted twelve days and began around the spring equinox, in the month of Nisan.
- Glazed lions, bulls and dragons from Babylon are held by museums in Istanbul, Copenhagen, Detroit, Paris, Vienna, Toronto, Chicago and New York, among others.
- Iraq formally asked Germany to return the gate in 2002 and again in 2009.
Why it is worth it
The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate of the inner city of Babylon, built around 569 BC by King Nebuchadnezzar II and dedicated to the goddess Ishtar. It is one of the most dazzling survivals of the ancient world. Its walls were faced with bricks glazed a deep blue, meant to evoke lapis lazuli, and against that ground marched rows of animals in low relief: the aurochs of the storm god Adad and the muลกแธซuลกลกu dragon of Marduk, a creature with a snake-like head and tail, a scaly lion's body and powerful talons on its hind feet. Borders and rosettes were glazed in black, white and gold. The gate stood about 15 metres high, with foundations reaching another 14 metres below ground, and its roof and doors were of cedar.
Through the gate ran the Processional Way, walled on both sides with about 120 striding lions and other figures on yellow and black glazed brick, along which statues of the gods were carried at the New Year festival. The craftsmanship is astonishing on close inspection: the moulded bricks were planned so that no joint fell across an animal's eye, and the colours came from a frit of sand, plant ash and minerals such as cobalt, fired twice.
The German archaeologist Robert Koldewey excavated Babylon from 1904 to 1914, and the fragments were shipped to Berlin, where the smaller front gate and part of the Processional Way were rebuilt in the Pergamon Museum. It is one of the most complex reconstructions in the history of archaeology and the centrepiece of the museum's ancient Near Eastern collection. Other panels are scattered among museums around the world, and at Babylon itself a smaller replica gate was built in the late twentieth century.
Getting there
The reconstructed gate is in the Pergamon Museum on Museum Island in central Berlin, part of the Museum Island World Heritage Site; Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) serves the city. The original site is at Babylon, about 9 km from Hillah in Iraq; the nearest airport there is Al Najaf International (NJF), about 61 km away.
Plan your visit
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Nearby places
- Fernsehturm Berlin 0.9 km ยท observation-tower
- Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe 1.4 km ยท war-memorial
- Jewish Museum Berlin 2.1 km ยท museum
- Brandenburg Gate 1.4 km ยท city-gate
- Soviet War Memorial 6.4 km ยท war-memorial
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city wall of Babylon. It was constructed c.โ569 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was part of a grand walled processional way leading into the city.
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