The hook
The ruins of Babylon, one of the most famous cities of the ancient world, home to the legendary Hanging Gardens and the great blue Ishtar Gate, on the plains south of Baghdad, a heartland of civilisation now hard and risky to reach.
01Why it's worth it
Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates, is where cities, writing, and law first arose, and Babylon was among its greatest. It was the capital of empires under rulers like Hammurabi, who set down one of the earliest law codes, and Nebuchadnezzar, associated with the fabled Hanging Gardens (whose very existence is debated) and the magnificent tiled Ishtar Gate, the original of which now stands in a Berlin museum. The site today is a mix of genuine ancient foundations, later reconstructions, and controversial modern rebuilding, on the plain near the modern town of Hillah, south of Baghdad, itself a city of deep Islamic-golden-age history. Iraq holds an extraordinary density of world heritage, but decades of war and instability have made much of the centre and south difficult and sometimes dangerous to visit. This records the place and its significance; whether to go depends entirely on the current, changeable security situation.
02How to experience it
Travel in central Iraq requires careful attention to current security advice and usually a local guide or fixer; conditions change. If circumstances allow, see the Babylon site with someone who can separate the ancient from the reconstructed, and pair it with Baghdad's museums and old quarters. Weigh the risks seriously and honestly.