The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

PART I

Unit 1. The Wonders of the Ancient World

Pre-reading

Exercise 1. Match pictures with their names. Then, tell about each of these wonders.

1. Carthage,2. Nacka Lines,3. Stonehenge,4. Teotihuacan,5. The Acropolis of Athens,6. The Coliseum of Rome,7. The Great Wall of China,8. The Temple of Apollo in Delphi (Greece),9. The Terracotta Army (China)

a) ..............................................	b) ..............................................	c) ...............................................
d) .............................................	e) ..............................................	f) ................................................
g) .............................................	h) ..............................................	i) ................................................

Exercise 2. Choose the names of the following wonders of the ancient world from the list to label the pictures. Then, give information about each of them.

1. The Colossus of Rhodes,2. The Pyramids in Egypt,3. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon,4. The Lighthouse of Alexandria,5. The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus,6. The Statue of Zeus,7. The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, 8. The Sphinx.

a) …………………….	b) ……………………	c) ………………………..	d) ……………
e) …………………….	f) ……………………	g) ………………………..	h) ……………

Reading

Exercise 3. Read the text “The seven wonders of the ancient world” and match sentences (A-F) to the numbered spaces (1-6) in it. Then explain the words in bold.

A. The grass is permanently green and the leaves of trees grow firmly attached to supple branches.

B. Number seven was chosen because according to Greek culture it represents and indicates perfection, prosperity and happiness.

C. There are no records of the Hanging Gardens from the time Nebuchadnezzer ruled, although there were tablets describing the palace, the city of Babylon and the walls.

D. These monuments were located in Greece,northern Africa, Minor Asia and the Middle East.

E. Traveling through Babylonia, Egypt and Persia, they noticed the wonderful buildings and monuments of new places.

F. Water from the nearby Euphrates River was lifted far into the air so it could flow down the terraces, watering the several levels of trees and flowers.

The world is full of surprises and wonders which may be man-made or many are natural, these wonders are world famous by the name “Wonders of the world”. 1) ..... . So mainly in every list there are 7 wonders which are famous as “Wonders of the world”. Many similar lists have been made, including lists for the Medieval World and the Modern World.

Around the 4th century BC, the Greeks gained control in the world. This allowed Greek citizens to travel through the area of the Middle East and the Mediterranean. 2) ..... . They made lists of amazing places for other travelers to see. Each picked his favorites. There were many lists and not every list was the same. Some earlier lists were made before ‘wonders’ were built. Other people just had different ideas of what was the most special.

However, the final list, also called canonical list, describing the seven wonders of the ancient world has been adopted after the reign of Alexander the Great according to fourteen lists from different authors. The canonical list refersto the seven following wonders: 1) The Colossus of Rhodes, 2) The Great Pyramid of Giza, 3) The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, 4) The Lighthouse of Alexandria, 5) The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, 6) The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, 7) The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.

3) ..... . Two wonders were Greek, they situated in Europe - the statue of Zeus and the Colossus of Rhodes; two wonders were located in Minor Asia, in modern Turkey - the Temple of Artemis and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus; two were Egyptian, they located in Africa – the Pyramids and the Lighthouse of Alexandria and one wonder was Babylonian or Persian, it was situated in the Middle East, Iraq -the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Their date of construction varies from 2800 BC for the Pyramids in Egypt to 280 BC for the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Nowadays, the Pyramids in Egypt are the only wonders which still exist. Excavations proved the existence of the other wonders, except of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Built. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built in about 600 BC.

Location. They were located on the east bank of the Euphrates, about 50 km south of Baghdad, Iraq.

History. Ancient stories say that King Nebuchadnezzar built the gardens for his homesick wife, Amytis who had come from green, rugged land with mountains. Babylon was flat, dry and far from green. The Hanging Gardens probably didn't hang. The description comes from the Greek word which means "overhanging" like on a balcony or terrace. 4) ..... . In fact, none of the historians who wrote about this magnificent garden even saw it. The garden might not have existed.

Description. Whether the garden existed or not, this is how it has been described by ancient Greek sources: "The hanging garden has plants cultivated above ground level, and theroots of the trees are embedded in an upper terrace rather than in the earth. The whole mass is supported on stone columns. 5) ..... ." Exotic flowers and plants covered the terraces. Shade came from cypress trees, palms and there was a rich smell of aromatic plants and flowers in the air.

How did they water the Gardens of Babylon? One of the most amazing parts of the garden is the watering system. 6) ..... . This was probably done with a chain pump. Two large wheels, connected by a chain, turned and the buckets dipped into a pool and picked up water. The chain then lifted the buckets to the upper wheel where the water was tipped into an upper pool. The empty buckets kept turning and ended up back in the bottom pool.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 1983