Babylon at Its Height Under Nebuchadnezzar II, c. 600 BCE | Calm Bedtime History

It is the year 584 BCE, the twenty-first year of King Nebuchadnezzar II's reign. You stand upon the western bank of the Euphrates, where the river bends through the heart of Babylon, greatest city of its age. Behind you rise walls of baked brick so broad that chariots pass upon their summits four abreast, and beyond them the blue-glazed towers of the Ishtar Gate catch the last light of a Mesopotamian afternoon.