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Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Ancients

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The Confusion of Mesopotamia and Babylonia

People got very confused in Mesopotamia, especially if they came from the West. There are descriptions of medieval merchants who couldn't find their way because they never knew which river they were on. The Babylonians got a bit mixed up. And there's a branch of the Euphrates that's sometimes called by this and sometimes called by something else - it's really complicated. It's a real network of canals because that was their means of transport. In the flat land of Babylonia, people went by boat almost everywhere. You can imagine somebody from Greece going to Babylonia and being a bit like going to a delta where there's a stream across every other minute.

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