FACT #2-- After the FINAL FALL there will Never Again be any Arab Dwellers. The mud-brick walls were weakened by a Hussein-era concrete roof that they could not support, which collapsed in 1999, and a second mud roof that replaced it, which was damaged by post-invasion military occupation. Babylon has been inhabited for centuries, was one of the first megalopolises, and is even mentioned in the Bible. It was one of the cities founded by King Nimrod, according to Genesis 10:9-10. That is "not what my eyes see" in light of the actual data. The antiquities are beautiful, said Mr. Juwad, 23, an art student. Jun 29, 2009 #1. Jeremiah 51:49. They continue to give scholars valuable insight into ancient Mesopotamia and possess immense historical, cultural, and symbolic value. , at "Replacement Babylons" such as Rome or America TODAY. Later, Iraq built an adjacent highway. Visitors Advocates of Mystery Babylon being a rebuilt Babylon will often claim Babylon wasn't destroyed in the same way as Sodom. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, U.S. military contractors built a base on the site, digging trenches, driving armored vehicles on the fragile streets and filling sandbags with dirt mixed with pottery and bone shards. Iraqi Jews are believed to have descended from the Jewish community, taken captive to Babilonia. Because of Nebuchadnezzar's imperialist cruelty and penchant for golden shrines to pagan gods, Babylon appears as shorthand for everything ungodly in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Babylon was the capital city of the ancient Babylonian Empire, which itself is a term referring to either of two separate empires in the Mesopotamian area in antiquity. I also explained that the once-so-powerful nation of Babylon the country which we now call Iraq will one day rise to become the most wealthy and powerful nation in the world, according to Old and New Testament prophets and apostles. What else can you see in Babylon? ( Isaiah 47:5) Like the Egyptian and . The production of the new bricks, sized and coloured to match the original Babylonian ones (the Hussein-era ones were too small and not the right shade) is simultaneously reviving traditional masonry and training new practitioners. It is only some large and well-known buildings that are excavated, said Olof Pedersen, professor emeritus in Assyriology at Swedens Uppsala University and a consultant to the World Monuments Fund. Most of the city we dont know very much about.. Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: "If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. To his credit, his budget for upkeep was much higher than the one currently managed by the Iraqi government, but his labour of love and self-aggrandisementhe had stones inscribed with his name as in other ancient sitesalso involved much heavy-handed reconstruction in the 1980s and 90s, often using cement bricks and other inappropriate building materials. Will people one day say of Babylon a city that didnt exist for much of the past 2,000 years Where is there another city as great as this? as John predicts in Revelation 18:18? NOT YET! European Union) advocating for "open borders" which basically says ANYONE can come here to live, work and play. https://allisrael.com/five-killed-and-15-wounded-in-alleged-israeli-airstrike-in-syria. This prophecy has never been fulfilled. Nebachadnezzar was the most famous of Babylon's rulers, but he wasn't the first. to 540 B.C. But there's almost nobody here. It's so well-defined it looks like it might have been made yesterday instead of more than 2,000 years ago. The Bible says that at its FINAL FALL Babylon will be "Utterly Destroyed" as Sodom. Cultural, religious, archeological, and biblical tourism is a big opportunity for Iraq, Allawi told me. If you believe in the Literal interpretation of Bible prophecy,1. then there is nothing more Literal when you affirm that. Allen argues that the bad restoration during Saddam Hussein's era and even the damage done by the military should be seen by UNESCO as another part of Babylon's history. Most of Babylon was rebuilt by Saddam Hussein on its old foundations, but pictured here is the original Ishtar gate Credit: Getty - Contributor 10 The Palace, which is adjacent to the remains. Much to the consternation of archaeologists, Saddam raised city walls of 38 feet (11.5 meters) and built a Roman-style arena on the ruins of old Babylon. Unfortunately it has no Scriptural validity and contradicts the plain statements of God's Word. Is Babylon being rebuilt today? It remains in ruin after decades of war in the area. But conservation isn't taught in universities here. As to what knowledge or treasures might be down there, he said, its a very simple answer no one knows., In Beleaguered Babylon, Doing Battle Against Time, Water and Modern Civilization, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/06/world/middleeast/babylon-iraq-archeology-conservation.html. By July 2019, so much progress had been made that Babylon was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Therefore, I must go with my eyes and conclude that, according to Isaiah 13:19-20, literal Babylon is prophetically programed to be Revived. World Monuments Fund safeguards cultural heritage around the globe, ensuring our treasured places are preserved for present and future generations. The concept of Babylon being rebuilt has attracted a great deal of speculation over recent years, and I suspect it has sold many books on the subject. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Its hanging gardens were said to be one of the seven wonders of the world. After 2003, there was a Polish military base here as part of the U.S.-led military occupation that included landing helicopters on the ancient site. One day millions of people will visit Babylon, said Donny George, head of Iraqs Board of Antiquities. BABYLON IS BEING REBUILT, JUST AS PROPHESIED. Fall of Babylon In 539 B.C., less than a century after its founding, the legendary Persian king Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon. Babylon was once the pet project of Saddam Hussein, who envisioned himself as a neo-Nebuchadnezzar, and often referred to a Quranic passage linking the ruler of the Babylonian Empire to the liberation of Palestine. PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF of Shepherds and Sheep at Babylon 6. During his more than twenty years in power, Saddam worked toward rebuilding the ancient city of Babylon. Some who have presented the case for a rebuilt Babylon seem predisposed to the idea that . But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Terrorist insurgencies. THEREFOREBabylon of Chaldea Must Rise Again. Jeremiah told Seraiah to read God's judgment on Babylon when he visited with King Zedekiah: This temple, dedicated to the mother goddess Ninmakh in the sixth century, was first excavated by archaeologists of the Koldewey Expedition (18991914) and later re-excavated and reconstructed by Iraqi archaeologists. Then came the Romans. 3. In total, Saddam Hussein spent over 20 years rebuilding the city of Babylon, and probably got about half of it rebuilt before he was taken out in the war with Iraq. For a while, Saddam Hussein attempted to rebuild Babylon, and he even fancied himself as the new Nebuchadnezzar. NOT YET! Slowly but surely, we are seeing the Bible prophecies regarding Babyloncome to pass. ( ) Previous . For instance, when Saddam Hussein was in power, he vowed to rebuild Babylon and make it the great city it . BABYLON, Iraq Ammar al-Taee, an Iraqi archaeologist, picked up a clay panel fallen from one of the ancient walls of Babylon. He extended his empire across Syria, Egypt and the Kingdom of Judah. Now, Babylon, like many of Iraqs archaeological sites, has fallen into disrepair. Saddam Hussein, who saw himself as the successor to King Nebuchadnezzar, in the 1980s built a large palace overlooking the excavated remains. They certainly have long had a difficult time imagining the rebuilding of the ancient Iraqi city of Babylon, at least on the scale described in the Left Behindnovels about the End Times (written by Evangelicals Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, and which sold more than 60 million books in the 1990s), or any of my novels or non-fiction books. Indeed, as I was doing research for Epicenter, I interviewed then-Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi. After years of conflict, although not violence-free, Iraq is safe enough for younger Iraqis who have never seen most of their own country to come to Babylon. Accuracy and availability may vary. As part of a new generation of archaeologists, Mr. al-Taee works for the Iraqi government on a World Monuments Fund project aimed at stemming the damage to one of the worlds best known yet least understood archaeological sites. The 2,500-year-old dragon relief behind him is related to Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon. ALLEN: So what happens is the salts get into the brickwork and dissolves brickwork matrix. Since the liberation of Iraq in 2003, however, a great deal has happened. Crumbling infrastructure. (Jeremiah 51:43. Projects at Ishtar Gate and Ninmakh Temple, launched in 2016 and 2019 respectively, are still ongoing. It will be a place for creatures of the night. The ruins of Babylon, also known as Babel, date back over 3,000 years. The new initiative is part of the WMFs 15-year commitment to conservation efforts as part of its Future of Babylon project, initiated in 2008. But it's never been listed as a modern World Heritage Site by the United Nations. According to Christian Post: "The Bible not only shows that a literal Babylon will exist at the end of our age, but it will be resurrected in the same location as its ancient predecessor in the. Prophecy scholars are divided in their opinion as to whether or not the city of Babylon will literally be rebuilt again. (Washington, D.C., June 29, 2009) -- Keep your eye on Iraq. AFTER the FINAL FALL of Babylon, the site will never again have. Rev 14:8 - Then a second angel followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.". Rev 16:19 - The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. History carving of Hammurabi Though traces of prehistoric settlement exist, Babylon's development as a major city was late by Mesopotamian standards; no mention of it existed before the 23rd century bce. He told me he absolutely loved the idea of rebuilding Babylon. Because King Nebuchadnezzar built palaces and temples on top of previous ones, there are entire layers of the city underground, and underwater. Now, she said, we see that after decades the cement is damaging things.. 1. There is no place on earth today where stands the largest structure in the world, used for a religious purpose, all worshipping in one tongue regardless of their mother tongue, and is holy to more than 1.5 billion people on earth that is called Mount Babel, except the one in Mecca overlooking the Ka'ba. . Much of the problem is that most of the four-mile-square city has never been excavated or even surveyed. Herodotus, the 5th-century BCE Greek historian, describes the impressive irrigation system of Babylon and the walls but does not mention any gardens . It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Isaiah 13:20DID THAT HAPPEN? AFTER the FINAL FALL of Babylon, the site will never again have 1. Within that time, WMF and the SBAH completed a site management plan that addressed issues such as defining site boundaries and areas where future excavations might take place; identifying economic opportunities for local communities; and designing ways to accommodate tourists effectively at the site. But many of the bricks are crumbling, and as the water table rises, entire walls are in danger of falling. Although the war significantly reduced tourism in the region, in recent years thousands of Iraqis visit the site each year. The ancient city of Babylon is a World Heritage Site, but it faces threats old and new. Babylon's ruins, reconstructed in part by Saddam Hussein, lie about an hour and a half's drive south of today's Baghdad. History shows that every single one of these prophecies remains unfulfilled. Ruling from 605 to 562 B.C.E., Nebuchadnezzar extended the Babylonian empire across Egypt, Syria and the Kingdom of Judah, where he seized Jerusalem in 597 B.C.E., capturing tens of thousands of Israelites and dragging them off to Babylon as forced laborers where the Bible tells us they "wept" in exile by its rivers. Babylon's remains, mounds of mud-brick buildings spread over about 30 square kilometers, are in present-day Iraq, south of Baghdad. ARRAF: You look around and you're surrounded by these 2,500-year-old walls with mythical creatures on them. This false teaching of Babylon being rebuilt obscures the nature of the prophecy being fulfilled right now -- people are missing it because they are looking down the road 50 years or more when Babylon is supposed to be rebuilt as the global capital and economic power. Back in the 1970s, Saddam Hussein tried to recover the city's lost glory, but his efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. We can only guess how deep it could be, said Dr. Pedersen, one of the worlds leading experts on the archaeology of Babylon. 1.7K 234K views 15 years ago The New Babylon (Sep 1997) In the sixth century BC, Babylon, was the greatest city in the world. In February 2021, National Public Radio reportedon the state of tourism in Babylon. Babylon flourished in 1894 BC . The site's remains were first excavated by Robert Koldewey, a German architect, at the end of the nineteenth century. His projects have stabilized walls, restored the statue of the Lion of Babylon, removed modern buildings built against the ancient walls and dismantled razor wire fences. There IS a buildup of Babylon going on today, and for the past 1000 years. Whats more, the Obama Administrationis contributing $700,000 towards The Future of Babylon Project, through the State Departments budget., In January 2011, I shared with my readers an intriguing articlepublished by the New York Times about Iraqs latest efforts topreserve, protect, restore and then rebuild the ancient city of Babylon and make it a draw for tourists, with U.S. taxpayer assistance., The Babylon project is Iraqs biggest and most ambitious by far, a reflection of the ancient citys fame and its resonance in Iraqs modern political and cultural heritage, the Times reported, noting that the State Department had announced a new $2 million grant to begin work to preserve the sites most impressive surviving ruins. Just a few short decades after Nebuchadnezzar's death, Babylon was taken by the Persian conqueror Cyrus II, who reduced the city to just another outpost in his vast, Iran-based empire. Therefore, Babylon's FINAL FALL is yet to happen in the Future. Does the "King of the North" Prophecy CHANGE with the TIMES ? Today, conservation efforts must assess the effects of these twentieth-century additions at the site and their place in its future. Verse Concepts. Cultural tourism could become Iraqs second biggest industry, after oil, said Philippe Delanghe, a United Nations official helping with the project. After years of Iraqi effort, Babylon was inscribed two years ago as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognizing the exceptional universal cultural value of what was considered the most dazzling metropolis in the ancient world. Cement floors trapped water while a cement roof on one of the ancient temples pushed down the entire structure. Today, there are many countries or groups of countries (e.g. In 2009 CE, the local government of Babylon opened the city to the public. In order to keep the peace among people without ties of blood or religion, Hammurabi created his famous Legal Code, essentially a detailed list of crimes and their associated punishments: This early system of retributive justice inscribed on an 8-foot (2.4-meter) diorite obelisk that is housed in the Louvre in Paris is believed to have been the basis of the ancient Hebrews' code of laws laid out in Exodus, known as "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.". Here is More PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF of Inhabitants at Babylon SEE ALSO 2500-year Timeline of Inhabitants at Babylon, 2. . Then, in a country under Saddam Husseins iron grip, the most joyous part of visiting was seeing families free of their worries for a few hours. This initiative led to the creation of the Future of Babylon project in 2008, designed to serve as a template for documenting heritage, assessing conditions, and developing conservation plans at sites across the country. In the 1920s, the British ran train tracks through the archaeological site as part of a Baghdad to Basra railway. Now, Ham admits that "this structure might seem like an odd addition for a ministry devoted to upholding the authority of God's Word and spreading the gospel through its many outreaches." But he assures us that his motives are "diametrically opposed to the reasons of the original builders over 4,000 years ago." Well, that's a relief. There are continuing efforts to rebuild the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace complex, headed up by The World Monuments Fund. No-- the complete absence of Inhabitants at Babylon has never occurred. It was located near the Euphrates River . The sites remains were first excavated by Robert Koldewey, a German architect, at the end of the nineteenth century. But it's extraordinary. As a result of WMF and SBAHs partnership, Babylon was officially inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on July 5, 2019. No. This is another key event for everyone to really keep an eye on. Is America Babylon?6. Babylon will be destroyed with fire from heaven as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (Rev. Babylon must be Rebuilt so these six (6) prophecies can be literally fulfilled. Babylon was located in Shinar, in ancient Mesopotamia on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. FACT #4-- After the FINAL FALL Babylon will be a "DESOLATE DESERT" Forever, But she will be completely desolate A parched land and a desert.. Jeremiah 50:13; 51:43. Art historians referred to his attempt as Disney for a despot. Some of Saddams recreations were destroyed during wars in the region, though others remain accessible to the public today. It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there Isaiah 13:20DID THAT HAPPEN? Once the wealthiest and most powerful cities in the world indeed, a wonder of the ancient world Babylons empire was defeated by the Persian monarch, Cyrus the Great, in 539 B.C. It is a tale of greed, hubris, empire and religious persecution; also of human. What my eyes do see--literally-- in both photographs and historical accounts, is human habitation and vibrant life far removed from Isaiah's description of post-'Final-Fall' Babylon. Inside Babylons outer city walls, Iraqs oil ministry is building a metering station for one of the three pipelines that have been laid in recent years. Brick reliefs of bulls and dragons, referencing Marduk the supreme god of Babylon and facing incoming visitors to protect the city from evils, look on as repairs to a dangerous staircase make the area a safer experience for tourists. There was a period in the 70s and 80s when it was customary to use cement, said Josephine DIlario, an Italian earthen architecture specialist working on the site. Its still-eerie, grandiose Hussein-era palaces and guesthouses are filled with international artists invited for the Babylon festival, and thousands of Iraqis flock here every month for parties, weddings and musical boat rides along the Euphrates river. Because Babylon is being promoted as being the city of the future, and of the most advanced technology, wicked corporations & individuals such as . He concerned himself with food distribution and public safety in a city that represented something entirely new the intermingling of hordes of people from wildly different cultures. Persian Period (539-322 BCE) 539 BCE - Persian Ruler Cyrus the Great Conquers Babylonian Empire, Including Jerusalem. ISIS-led genocide. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Babylon in ancient Mesopotamia was known as the site of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Site proudly built by Amazee Labs. Babylon has seen it all. by Nebuchadnezzars father, Nabopolassar, and adorned with brick reliefs of the Babylonian gods Marduk and Adad.. On weekends the site is filled with Iraqi tourists from all over the country. The Babylon festival was revived last year and the 2022 edition is taking place this month and features the famous Iraqi singer Ali Jasim Photo: Hadani Ditmars The new initiative is part of the. Dave Roos As one of the greatest cities of the ancient world, Babylon has recently been dubbed the city of wonders. Saddam actually began rebuilding the city of Babylon in the 1980s, but ran out of money during his war with Iraq. Between 2009 and 2015, WMF collaborated with Iraqs State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) to document Babylon, complete condition surveys, and develop conservation plans. Im just not sure anybody knows when., I cited this important story in Epicenter., In April 2009, I reportedthat the government of Iraq is moving forward with plans to protect the archaeological remains of the ancient City of Babylon, in preparation for building a modern city of Babylon. Over the last decade, oil revenues have accounted for more than 99% of [Iraqs] exports, 85% of the governments budget, and 42% of GDP, notesthe World Bank. Yet, in every case, there exists PHOTOGRAPHS. A century ago, German archaeologists carted off the most significant parts of the city. The bricks in this area are repeatedly being exposed to water, dryness, and rising salts, and then they collapse, said Jeff Allen, a historical preservationist who has led the World Monument Fund project here since 2009. . Babylon in ancient Mesopotamia was known as the site of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Is Babylon, Iraq, that "great city" of "Babylon" mentioned 5 times in Revelation 18? Husseins interventions, neglect resulting from 12 years of draconian UN sanctions that bankrupted the country, and subsequent damage by military vehicles in the wake of the 2003 invasion all contributed to Babylons demise. Answer (1 of 2): Well, that is an extremely interesting and indeed important question after all, according to the book of revelation, the nation of Babylon is: " The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on. These two empires achieved regional dominance between the 19th and 15th centuries BC, and again between the 7th and 6th centuries BC.