History glossary
Babylonian
relating to Babylon and Babylonia, a major Mesopotamian city and kingdom in modern Iraq.
- Category
- City and culture
- Region
- Central and southern Iraq
- Date range
- second to first millennium BCE
What it means
Babylon was a city on the Euphrates in central Mesopotamia, near modern Hillah in Iraq. Babylonia refers to the wider southern Mesopotamian kingdom and culture associated with Babylon, famous for law, scholarship, astronomy, religion, and imperial rule.
Related terms
Stories using this term
Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World
From Philip II's military reforms to the fall of the last Hellenistic kingdom, this story follows Alexander's conquests, the wars of his successors, and the spread of Greek culture across the ancient Near East.
Mesopotamia
Ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was one of the birthplaces of urban civilisation. In this Tigris and Euphrates civilization, communities built some of the first cities, developed cuneiform writing, organised law codes, and created early empires. From Sumer and Akkad to Babylon and Assyria, this history of Mesopotamia shows how farming, irrigation, temples, kingship, trade, and record-keeping helped create the structures of complex society. It also works as a Mesopotamia timeline and Mesopotamia civilization overview, with clear Mesopotamia facts tracing how Mesopotamian civilization grew from villages into states and empires.
