The Ishtar Gate of Babylon, side wall

The Ishtar Gate of Babylon, Pergamon Museum, Museum Island, Berlin. Glazed bricks, modern reconstruction Babylon (Iraq), 6th century BCE. Division of finds, VA Bab 1408-1456. The gate, with its vividly coloured glazed bricks, formed a unified architectural ensemble with the Processional Way, which led up to it from the north, and was part of Babylon's inner circle of defensive walls. The smaller, outer gate fa?ade, which was about 15 m high, has been reconstructed in the museum. All the animal reliefs and the lower decorative bands were laboriously pieced together from original fragments which were brought to Berlin in 1928 (see also the text opposite, next to the map]. Finds of inscriptions prove that the gate, dating from the time of Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BCE), was once dedicated to Ishtar, the goddess of sexuality, love and war, who is represented by her symbol, the lion, on the Processional Way. On the gate itself are figures of bulls, representing the storm god Adad, and a hy