巴比倫在哪里?它還存在嗎?

巴比倫在哪里?它還存在嗎?

At the height of its glory in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.E., the city of Babylon was the largest and wealthiest in the ancient world.

在公元前七、六世紀的鼎盛時期巴比倫城是古代世界上最大、最富有的城市。

Under the ruthless and ambitious King Nebuchadnezzar II, the sprawling settlement in modern-day Iraq grew as large as Chicago, and boasted towering temples, ornately tiled palaces and imposing city walls thick enough for two chariots to pass each other side by side.

在殘酷而野心勃勃的尼布甲尼撒二世統(tǒng)治下，現(xiàn)代伊拉克的龐大定居點發(fā)展到了芝加哥一樣大，并以高聳的寺廟、華麗的瓦片宮殿和雄偉的城墻而自豪，城墻的厚度足以讓兩輛戰(zhàn)車并排通過。

According to legend, it may also have been home to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World , and a hubristic sky-scraping temple that some historians believe inspired the biblical Tower of Babel.

根據(jù)傳說，它可能也是巴比倫空中花園的所在地，古代世界七大奇跡之一，以及一座傲慢的摩天大樓，一些歷史學家認為是這座摩天大樓啟發(fā)了圣經(jīng)中的巴別塔。

But the glory days of Babylon were short-lived. As foretold by Old Testament prophets, the grand city fell to the Persians in 539 B.C.E. and slowly crumbled over centuries of foreign invasions and occupations.

但巴比倫的榮耀是短暫的。正如舊約先知所預(yù)言的，這座大城市在公元前539年落入波斯人手中，并在幾個世紀的外國入侵和占領(lǐng)中慢慢崩潰。

Although Babylon was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, there isn't much left to see of the once-unstoppable empire.

盡管巴比倫在2019年被聯(lián)合國教科文組織列為世界遺產(chǎn)，但這個讓希臘歷史學家眼花繚亂、曾經(jīng)勢不可擋的帝國已經(jīng)所剩無幾。