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Comment by growthwtf | Hacker News Reader

Are you being metaphorical when you say literally? Or is this a reference to the conquest by Cyrus the Great?

I'm not trying to be pedantic here. I'm just not familiar with any historical event you are describing.

From what I've heard, and I'm not an expert, I wouldn't characterize any of the conquests of Babylon as a 'razing', And the eventual abandonment of the city was more a result of slow decline and changing geological conditions.

I do like to learn about the history of the area, so if it's just something I'm not familiar with, please point me in the right direction.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Babylon

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Babylonian_Empire

And literally decades later the coronation of Nabopolassar founded the Neo-Babylonian empire, soon before the Assyrian empire that destroyed old Babylon crumbled. It remained a major settlement after the destruction, it just took them a few decades to rise again.

99% of historical accounts about the sacking and destruction of cities are exaggerated. Even Carthage grew as a settlement mere years after the Romans destroyed it (the whole “salting the land” thing is an 18/19th century invention).

Thanks!

That's a bit light on details. Here's an account by king Sennacherib:

> I destroyed the city and its houses, from foundation to parapet; I devastated and burned them. I razed the brick and earthenwork of the outer and inner wall of the city, of the temples, and of the ziggurat; and I dumped these into the Araḫtu canal. I dug canals through the midst of that city, I overwhelmed it with water, I made its very foundations disappear, and I destroyed it more completely than a devastating flood. So that it might be impossible in future days to recognize the site of that city and its temples, I utterly dissolved it with water and made it like inundated land.

However since he was punishing Babylon for rebelling one time too many, he had reason to exaggerate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sennacherib

Even better. Thank you!

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