The Ishtar Gate (Arabic: بوابة عشتار) was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon[citation needed] (in the area of present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq). It was constructed in about 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was part of a grand walled processional way leading into the city. The walls were finished in glazed bricks mostly in blue, with animals and deities in low relief at intervals, these also made up of bricks that are molded and colored differently.
The German archaeologist Robert Koldewey led the excavation of the site from 1904 to 1914. Wanting to justify the large investment that had been provided by the German Oriental Society, another archeologist involved in the excavation, Walter Andrae, used his connections with both the German intelligence and with local Iraqi tribal sheikhs to smuggle the remains out of Iraq under the nose of the Ottoman authorities. The gate's ceramic pieces were disassembled according to a numbering system and then packed in straw in coal barrels to disguise them.These barrels were then transported down the Euphrates River to Shatt al-Arab, where they were loaded onto German ships and taken to Berlin.
After the end of the First World War in 1918, the smaller gate was reconstructed in the Pergamon Museum. The gate is 50 feet high, and the original foundations extended another 45 feet underground. The reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate in the Pergamon Museum is not a complete replica of the entire gate. The original structure was a double gate with a smaller frontal gate and a larger and more grandiose secondary posterior section. The only section on display in the Pergamon Museum is the smaller frontal segment.
Other panels from the facade of the gate are located in many other museums around the world, including various European countries and the United States. Text Source: Wikipedia
Photo Source: Collected from Internet
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