World Heritage honor enhances Babylon’s status

BAGHDAD — Iraq is celebrating the UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s decision to name the historic city of Babylon a World Heritage Site in a vote held in Azerbaijan’s capital, years after Baghdad began campaigning for the site to be added to the list.

The city on the Euphrates River is about 55 miles south of Baghdad and once was a main tourist attraction before Iraq suffered one war after another in the past four decades.

The 4,300yearold Babylon — now mainly an archaeological ruin and two important museums — is where dynasties have risen and fallen since the earliest days of settled human civilization.

King Hammurabi wrote his famous code of laws in Babylon, while Nebuchadnezzar sent his vast army from the city to Jerusalem to put down an uprising and bring the Jews back as slaves.

Some say Alexander the Great, who led his army out of Macedonia to conquer most of the known world, died there in 332 B.C.

“The city’s association with one of the seven wonders of the ancient world — the Hanging Gardens — has also inspired artistic, popular and religious culture on a global scale,” UNESCO said.

Dozens of Iraqis waving their national flag gathered at the Ishtar Gate at the site Friday celebrating their city’s new international status.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel AbdulMahdi described the vote as “another victory for the Iraq of civilizations that was and will always be a lighthouse to the world.”

President Barham Saleh tweeted that after Babylon, more ancient sites will be added to the list through which “Iraq will restore that status that it deserves.” Parliament Speaker Mohammed alHalbousi and Minister of Culture AbdulAmir alHamadani congratulated the Iraqi people on the announcement.

The vote came years after the Islamic State group damaged another Iraq World Heritage site in the country’s north, the ancient city of Hatra.

Qassim AbdulZahra is an Associated Press writer.

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Hussein Faleh / AFP / Getty Images The Northern Palace is a highlight of the ancient archaeological site of Babylon in Iraq. The 4,300yearold city on the Euphrates River is about 55 miles south of the capital of Baghdad.