THE MYSTERY

The Alternate Stories - People who don’t believe the Usual Story generally describe one of the two “Alternate Stories” as what really happened. Those alternate stories are:

1. The Gardens really existed, but not in Babylon. -

In this story, the Hanging Gardens were somewhere else, and built by somebody other than Nebuchadnezzar. People who like this explanation refer to the famous and well documented Garden of Nineveh, in the Assyrian Empire’s grand city. Actually there were several famous gardens in Nineveh. Tiglath-Pileser (1115-1077BC) apparently had an opulent garden and orchard. Assurnasirpal II (883-859BC) has a documented elaborate garden. And Sennacherib (704-681 BC) had a known personal interest in botany and built a beautiful garden in Nineveh. And finally King Shamsi-Adad is believed to have created a fabulous garden for his Queen, Seriramis. People who don’t accept Amytis as the inspiration for the Gardens usually pick Seriramis as the source for inspiring the Gardens.

So people who prefer this alternate story have several real documented gardens to look to and say “This was the real Hanging Gardens”. But I personally don’t think the historians who wrote about the Hanging Gardens could make such a big mistake as getting the city wrong (Nineveh instead of Babylon) and getting the motive (to please a Median bride who wanted mountains like she had back home) so well and consistently described when none of the alternate gardens seem to have a similar motive for their construction, and the Assyrians were constantly at war with Mede, not allies.

So, basically, I don’t believe this alternate idea.

               2. The Gardens didn’t really exist. -

 This second alternate idea is even wilder. It basically says, “The Hanging Gardens are just a myth!” They never existed and somebody just invented a great story that got famous enough that everybody started believing it’s true.

Again, I don’t buy it. I just doubt such a story could be invented and everybody accepted it as fact and nobody back then said “show me”. One person believing it’s true (or trying to pretend he believes it’s true) seems unlikely to convince enough other people for the story to become legend. I think there had to be something real to start the legend, something real that many people saw, and their stories and descriptions could have grown into a legend bigger than the truth. So I don’t believe it was just a myth.  

On To "The Mysteries Described."

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