Babylon

City · 2,201 BCE – 1 CE · in the Middle East

Capital of Babylonia (1800 BCE–601 BCE), Neo-Babylonian Empire (600 BCE–539 BCE), Achaemenid Empire (550 BCE–330 BCE).

Related

• Damascus (2,001 BCE): Capital of Umayyad Caliphate (661–744), Zengid dynasty (1139–1250), French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon (1923–1945), and 4 more.
• Uplistsikhe (2,001 BCE – 740 CE): Capital of Principality of Iberia (682–740).
• Itjtawy (c. 2,000–1,782 BCE): Capital of Middle Kingdom of Egypt (2000 BCE–1782 BCE).
• Assur (2,500–609 BCE): Capital of Assyria (1800 BCE–901 BCE), Neo-Assyrian Empire (900 BCE–609 BCE).
• Carchemish (1,901–901 BCE): Capital of Assyria (1800 BCE–901 BCE).
• Harran (c. 1,800 BCE): Capital of Assyria (1800 BCE–901 BCE), Umayyad Caliphate (744–750).
• Nimrud (c. 1,800–612 BCE): Capital of Assyria (1800 BCE–901 BCE).
• Nineveh (c. 1,800–612 BCE): Capital of Assyria (1800 BCE–901 BCE).
• Dur-Sharrukin (c. 1,800–605 BCE): Capital of Assyria (1800 BCE–901 BCE).
• Tell Leilan (c. 1,800–901 BCE): Capital of Assyria (1800 BCE–901 BCE).

Around the same time and place

• Cuneiform writing (c. 3,200 BCE): Scribes in Sumer, notably at Uruk, developed one of the world's first writing systems, which evolved from pictographic accounting tablets into wedge-shaped signs pressed into clay.
• First writing at Uruk (c. 3,200 BCE): Clay tablets from Uruk recorded goods and labour with signs drawn in clay, the earliest known true writing system and ancestor of cuneiform.
• Unification of Egypt (c. 3,100 BCE): Narmer, a king from Upper Egypt, is traditionally credited with uniting the Nile Valley and Delta into a single kingdom, founding the First Dynasty.
• Great Pyramid of Giza (c. 2,560 BCE): Built for the Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu, it was the tallest human-made structure for about 3,800 years and is the only Wonder of the Ancient World still standing.
• Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2,100 BCE): An epic about Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, whose earliest Sumerian episodes date to around the Third Dynasty of Ur; it is among the oldest surviving great works of literature.
• Code of Hammurabi (c. 1,754 BCE): A Babylonian legal text of 282 laws inscribed on a basalt stele, known for its principle of proportional retribution; the stele was found at Susa in 1901.
• Phoenician alphabet (c. 1,050 BCE): The Phoenicians developed a 22-letter consonantal alphabet that spread through Mediterranean trade and became the ancestor of the Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic scripts.
• Cyrus the Great (c. 600 BCE – 530 BCE): Founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, which he expanded from Anatolia to Central Asia by conquering Media, Lydia and Babylon.

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