The ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon was the capital of the Babylonian Empire (during the reign of Hammurabi) and the New Babylonian Empire (600 to 550 BCE). It is located towards the southern center of Mesopotamia, on the eastern banks of the Euphrates River.
- Art was very abundant in Babylon, especially demonstrated in the lush temples near the city center. Early mosaics and terra cotta covered the inside walls, which were sometimes even lined with gold and zinc. The Babylonians also made many relief sculputures, which were more three-dimensional than the traditional reliefs.
- Baylon had the typical social structure of other Mesopotamian city-states during both the Old Empire and the New Empire. A king or emperor was at the top of society, followed by the rest of nobility, then priests, scholars and merchants. Towards the bottom of the system were farmers and peasants. At the very bottom, were the slaves, who were mainly owned by the upper class. There was a sort of middle class, made up of the specialized workers, like potters and metalworkers.
The political system of Babylon was simple: a king or emperor held power and enforced this power with several officials beneath him. One Babylonian king, Hammurabi, also made a code of law, to ensure that he had at least some control over his vast empire. He used the law of retaliation, which means if you killed a person, you were killed too. He also collected taxes regularly. Usually, the king was succeeded by his son or another relative, which is also known as the rule of a dynasty.
- There was no significant level of intellectuality in Babylon, although Hammurabi invented the first code of law and King Nebuchadnezzar built the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon for his wife, who missed her home. Some scribes and priests in ancient Babylon developed their own philosophy by creating wisdom literature, consisitng of poems and dialogues. They tried to find their own reasons for natural phenomena, and influenced later Greek philosophers.
- Religion in ancient Babylon was a very seriously taken aspect of life. There were many temples and priests were a very significant part of society. In these temples, there were statues of holy gods, and the people were required to bring them offerings. The priests later consumed these offerings and cleaned the statue's robes. The priests were believed to be able to read the future, so people often payed them large amounts of money to make sure that they would only have good things happening to them alter in their lives.
Babylonian economy was centered on trade - trade was the key to wealth. Their trading network was based on farming because this was the main form of industry. Since the Babylonian Empire was a stable one, trade routes were mostly safe from bandits, so the king could afford to promote trade and therefore tax the people to ensure the further protection of these routes. The Babylonians had an early form of currency, which was sometimes silver, and sometimes pieces of metal shaped like ducks.
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