The location of the Gardens is thought to be on the east bank of the River
Euphrates, about 50 km south of what is now Baghdad, in modern day Iraq. It is
said that the Gardens were built by King Nebuchadnezzar II to please his wife or
concubine who had been "brought up in Media and had a passion for mountain
surroundings". Nebuchadnezzar II ruled Babylon from 605 to 562 B.C.
Scientists have been unable to identify positively the remains of the gardens.
One theory about the gardens comes from an account by Berossus, a Babylonian
priest of the 200's B.C. Berossus description of the gardens, was that of a
brick terrace about 400 feet (120 meters) square and 75 feet (23 meters) above
the ground. In order to irrigate the flowers and trees in the gardens, slaves
worked in shifts turning screws to lift water from the Euphrates River.
