Babylon: Then and Now
The great city on the Euphrates, rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar II around 575 BC with the blue-glazed Ishtar Gate; today a field of ruins south of Baghdad.
As it was
The ruins today
Key facts
| Country today | Iraq |
| Status | Ruins |
| Date | 575 BC |
| Nearest city on the map | Baghdad (about 86 km) |
| Location | 32.542° N, 44.421° E |
BabylonOpen Babylon in the interactive map
Who ruled this place
Derived from the border maps; each row runs until the next recorded border change.
| Period | State |
|---|---|
| 500 BC–324 BC | Achaemenid Empire |
| 323 BC–301 BC | Empire of Alexander |
| 300 BC–2 BC | Seleucid Kingdom |
| 1 BC–399 | Parthian Empire |
| 400–499 | Persia |
| 500–699 | Sasanian Empire |
| 700–799 | Umayyad Caliphate |
| 800–999 | Abbasid Caliphate |
| 1000–1099 | Buwayhid Emirates |
| 1100–1199 | Seljuk Empire |
| 1200–1299 | Khwarazmian Empire |
| 1300–1399 | Ilkhanate |
| 1400–1491 | Timurid Empire |
| 1492–1599 | Emirate of the White Sheep Turks |
| 1600–1919 | Ottoman Empire |
| 1920–1944 | Mesopotamia (GB) |
| 1945–today | Iraq |
Battles and sites nearby
- Battle of al-Qadisiyyah · AD 636
- Battle of Karbala · AD 680
More: Historic landmarks of Iraq · All landmarks
Further reading
Last updated 9 November 2026. Sources: border data from historical-basemaps, land and rivers from Natural Earth; texts written for Chronica Maps from standard reference works. How we make the maps.