The Hanging Gardens of Babylon conjure up a romantic image of lush greenery and colorful flowers falling from the sky. The grandeur of their sight must have been majestic, the magnificence, what a sight to behold. OH! If only he had lived to this day. No wonder the ancient world considered them one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay However, strange as it may seem, one of the city's most spectacular sites was not mentioned by Herodotus: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. > Herodotus (/h'rdts/; Ancient Greek: dt, Hrdotos, Attic Greek pronunciation : [hrdo.tos] ) was a Greek historian born in Halicarnassus in the Persian Empire (modern Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the 5th century BC (c. 484 – c. 425 BC), a contemporary of Thucydides, Socrates and Euripides. He is often referred to as "The Father of History", a title first bestowed by Cicero; he was the first known historian to break with the Homeric tradition to treat historical topics as a method of inquiry, notably by collecting his materials systematically and critically and then organizing them into a historiographical narrative. Where are the truly suspended gardens, as the name suggests? Hanging gardens were probably not truly "hung", in the sense of being suspended from cables or ropes. The name comes from an inaccurate translation of the Greek word "remasters", or the Latin word "pensilis", which means not only "leaning", but "protruding" as in the case of a terrace or balcony. What exactly are hanging gardens? According to Wikipedia; > Roof garden (cultivation), a sustainable landscape architecture, an artistic garden or a small urban farm, attached to or built on a wall. Gift for a sick queen. According to one legend, Nebuchadnezzar II who ruled the city for about 43 years starting in 605 BC, built the Hanging Gardens for his Median wife, Queen Amytis. Amytis, daughter of the king of the Medes, had married Nebuchadnezzar in an attempt to foster an alliance between the two nations. Amytis longed for the green, mountainous land from which he came, and found the flat, barren terrain of Babylon depressing. In an attempt to cheer her up an elaborate garden; an artificial mountain with rooftop gardens was built to imitate those of his homeland. MYTH, LEGEND OR FACT? Traditionally, the gardens were said to have been built in the ancient city of Babylon, near present-day Hillah, in Babil Province, Iraq. The Babylonian priest Berossus, in his writings around 290 BC, later cited by Josephus, attributed the gardens to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, who reigned between 605 and 562 BC. The location of the complex contradicts the place where Greek historians they placed the gardens, which were located on the banks of the Euphrates River. Also not to be overlooked is the fact that most ancient writings were written by Greek historians and most mentioned a Syrian king other than Josephus. Due to the lack of documentation about them in the chronicles of Babylonian history, many doubt whether they were ever there. Stephanie Dalley, an Assyriologist at the University of Oxford, believes that earlier sources were mistranslated by placing the gardens about 350 miles south of their actual location in Nineveh. King Sennacherib left a series of documents describing a luxurious set of gardens he had built there along with an extensive irrigation system. In contrast, Nebuchadnezzar makes no mention of gardens in his list of accomplishments in Babylon. Dalley also argues that the name "Babylon" meaning "Gate of the Gods" was a title that could.