Ishtar Gate, Ancient Babylon, Al-Hillah, Iraq
The Ishtar Gate, is dedicated and named after “Ishtar”, the goddess of love and war (Complex Religion). In approximately 575 BCE, the construction of the gate was ordered by the king Nebuchadnezzar II, which became one of the eight gateways to the inner city of Babylon. The Gate had originally been built of blue bricks and embellished with rows of creatures. Although the Ishtar Gate was dedicated to Ishtar, Nebuchadnezzar II included creature representations for other gods, including young bulls (Adad), lions (Ishtar) and dragons (Marduk). Today, a reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate can be found at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
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