Fabled Babylon tries to recover its roots
BABYLON, Iraq: It was one of the world's first great cities, a place where astronomers mapped the stars millennia ago and kings created an early code of law and planted what became known as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Yet little remains of the ancient capital, as seen during a trip here last month on one of the few permits issued by the Iraqi government since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 ousted Saddam Hussein. The site has the aura of a theme park touched by the ambition of Saddam and the opportunism of looters: Modern walkways run beside crumbling old walls, a reconstructed Greek theater and a palace built for Saddam atop an artificial hill.
Now, for the first time, global institutions led by the United Nations are thoroughly documenting the damage and how to fix it. A Unesco report due early next year will cite Saddam's construction but will focus, at the Iraqi government's request, on damage done by U.S. forces from April to September 2003 and by the Polish troops deployed there for more than a year after.
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Yet little remains of the ancient capital, as seen during a trip here last month on one of the few permits issued by the Iraqi government since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 ousted Saddam Hussein. The site has the aura of a theme park touched by the ambition of Saddam and the opportunism of looters: Modern walkways run beside crumbling old walls, a reconstructed Greek theater and a palace built for Saddam atop an artificial hill.
Now, for the first time, global institutions led by the United Nations are thoroughly documenting the damage and how to fix it. A Unesco report due early next year will cite Saddam's construction but will focus, at the Iraqi government's request, on damage done by U.S. forces from April to September 2003 and by the Polish troops deployed there for more than a year after.