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Babilu1, or Ka.dingir.ra (Sumerian), Babil (Imperial Aramaic)2, Babel (Judeo-Christian bible), Kar-Duniash (Kassites), Bαβυλόν (Babulon) or Babylon, and whose remains are near the modern city of al Hillah, was the capital of the Babilu Lugalate, which came to prominence during the 18th and 17th centuries BCE. In fact from 1770 to 1670 it was the largest city in the world,3 and still in 1600 it had an estimated 60 thousand residents and was the second largest city in the world, the largest in what is now Iraq.4 It was located on both sides of the river now called al Furat (the Euphrates). The city declined in importance in the 17th century and was sacked by the Hittites. For several centuries, temporarily renamed Kar-Duniash, it as the center of the Kassite realm. The city regained much of its status by 1000 BCE when it was the fourth largest city in the world5, but had a mixed seventh century, when the Assyrians first destroyed the city and then rebuilt it. In 800 BCE, it was tied for fifth largest city in the world, and second largest in what is now Iraq.6 In 650 BCE it was the fifth largest city in the world, and remained the second largest in today's Iraq, with an estimated population of 60 thousand.7 It regained independence and became the capital of the Chaldean (Neo-Babylonian) Empire in 612 BCE, and it again gained first rank in the world, holding that until 320 BCE.8 The Persians conquered it in 535 BCE and the Greeks in 331 BCE. Under the latter Babilu declined, with its people transported in the third century BCE, and the last mention of religious rites there happening in the early second century. By the end of that century Babilu was in ruins.
Gate of Ishtar from the Assyrian period
1. In Akkadian and Sumerian, the city name was written in Cuneiform. This cannot be rendered in most browsers although unicode for it exists.
2. In Imperial Aramaic, the city name cannot be rendered in most browsers although unicode for it exists.
3. "List of cities that can have been the largest" Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987).
4. Tables of the World's Largest Cities, "1600 B.C." table, ibid.
5. Tables of the World's Largest Cities, "1000 B.C." table, ibid.
6. Tables of the World's Largest Cities, "800 B.C." table, ibid.
7. Tables of the World's Largest Cities, "650 B.C." table, ibid.
8. Same source as footnote 2.