We ate breakfast at our hotel this morning, but found the coffee inadequate, so we visited the Maram cafe down the block.
Karrar picked us up from the cafe and then we headed out of Najaf north to Babylon. The Najaf area (really much of Iraq) is famous for its date palm trees, and along the highway, Karrar pulled over so we could buy some heart of the palm to try.
We reached Babylon at 11:00 and spent an hour and a half touring the site.
The best part of the readily recognizable, incredible, blue-tiled Ishtar Gate was largely removed from this site by German archeologists a century ago and it is now in a museum in Berlin. Apparently, the then-ruling Ottomans approved its removal. Today visitors walk through a replica to reach the archaeological site.
Actually much of the original Ishtar Gate does remain here, but it lacks the remarkable tiling. You can see the relief carvings of lions and dragons, although they are difficult to make out in the photos below.
More readily visible and just as amazing to see is the cuneiform inscription stamped into the brick in the centre of the photo below. Apparently Nebuchadnezzar had thousands of the bricks stamped like this. I am not sure of the translation, but it is something to the effect of "I am Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest ever."
Of course seeing these thousands-of-years old inscribed bricks is quite something, but Babylon's fascinations are not exclusively ancient. Saddam Hussein, who restored (albeit according to UNESCO very poorly) much of this site, decided he, too, should have bricks inscribed in his honour! I found this translation of the Arabic online: "In the reign of the victorious Saddam Hussein, the president of the Republic, may God keep him the guardian of the great Iraq and the renovator of its renaissance and the builder of its great civilization, the rebuilding of the great city of Babylon was done in 1987."
Here are a few more photos from around the archaeological site. Note that as at Ur, most of the artifacts found here are in museums elsewhere in the world, so for the most part all that is left are bricks.
A lone, 2,600 year old basalt lion does still reside here, however.
Behind the lion you can see a building on the hilltop. That is what is left of one of Saddam Hussein's palaces, which he constructed here to further associate his rule with that of Nebuchadnezzar.
The palace is definitely not part of the historic site, and it is off limits to the public, but Karrar had a way in so we surreptitiously cut across the sand and through the trees and under the barbed wire.
Here, at the base of the hill, Karrar and a soldier started shouting at each other, which we gathered was just for show since there were many locals within earshot. I gave Karrar 15,000 dinars to tip the solider. Then, we walked up the hill and into the palace.
All around the exterior of the palace there are panels depicting scenes that portray Saddam as the hero he evidently considered himself to be.
The setting of the palace with its views of the Babylon archaeological site and the Euphrates River seems consistent with Saddam's self-image.
The palace itself appears to be standing solidly, but it is definitely not being kept up and it has suffered some significant vandalism.
In some places, though, the artwork is untouched and actually seems incredibly well persevered considering it has been sitting here uncared for for decades.
Here are two videos I took as we walked around the palace.
Once we were done touring Babylon, we ate lunch in the neighbouring city of Hillah. After lunch we drank tea outside the restaurant across from this billboard and for whatever reason I was curious about so I asked Karrar who the men are. It turns out the billboard is advertising the local militia and the man on the left is the mayor of Hillah and the man on the right is the militia's mullah.
