Iraqi Culture Minister Says UNESCO Included Babylon In World Heritage List Too Late

CAIRO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2019) Iraqi Culture Minister Abdulameer Hamdani said on Sunday that UNESCO had made the decision to include Babylon in the World Heritage List too late.

UNESCO announced its decision on July 5 during the 43rd Session of the World Heritage Committee in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.

"Babylon is one of the oldest cities of the ancient world. It is a source of enlightenment for the whole of mankind ... that is why its inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List is an absolutely logical development, but that was made too late over mistakes, made in the past, such as poor maintenance," Hamdani said in a statement, obtained by Sputnik.

According to the minister, the Culture Ministry created special groups to save temples and reconstruct monuments of Babylon, following the UNESCO decision.

Hamdani stressed that the Iraqi government had allocated $49 million to reconstruct Babylon and would do the same within the next four years.

Babylon is associated with two out of seven wonders of the world mentioned by Antipater of Sidon: the Hanging Gardens and the walls of Babylon. The latter were, however, later replaced in the list with the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

The Neo-Babylonian Empire was conquered in 593BC by Persian King Cyrus the Great after the Battle of Opis. The city lost its importance of the capital of a big empire until its conquest by Macedonian King Alexander the Great in 331BC, after which Babylon became a key economic center of the young Macedonian Empire. Babylon was also the site of Alexander the Great's death in 323BC. After the dissolution of the Macedonian Empire, the city started to decline up to full desolation.

The ruins of Babylon were significantly damaged during the 2003 US invasion in Iraq as the allied troops deployed a military base with a helipad exactly on the ruins of the city.