Chapter 53 strange babylon

Go to Babylon today. Just these six words, there is a fairy tale-like arrogance. Babylon is 90 kilometers south of Baghdad, with a straight road and lush grass and trees. When the residential buildings gradually recede and layers of barbed wire are added, it will arrive. A monument is surrounded by so many barbed wires, which makes people wonder, maybe it is for the strict protection of heritage.But when you look at the gate of the ancient city, there are no guards, and it is very casual to enter and exit, which is even more strange. The ancient city gate is a torii-style building covered with blue glaze and engraved with many animal figures. We have seen it in various picture albums before.This city gate is called the Ishtar Goddess Gate, and the entire original is kept in the Pergamon Museum in Germany. This is an imitation, but the imitation is too new and too rough.

There is a clean small square at the entrance, and there are some modern oil paintings on the wall, which depict several historical scenes of the Babylonian Kingdom, one of which is a relief on the top of the "Code of Hammurabi", showing that Hammurabi is accepting justice The entrustment of God has become the legislator of the world.The original legal code with this relief is also in foreign countries.It's really unfair to think about it. Everyone is scrambling for the cultural relics of the Babylonian kingdom, but there are very few left in Babylon. Turn right from the square and you will see a road, which is the avenue of honor guards of the Kingdom of Babylon.The road is now surrounded by iron fences and cannot be entered. There are mottled black patches on the ground in the middle. This is the asphalt road back then.The ancient city of Babylon floating on the sea of ​​oil must have used oil to make fire, but it was unexpected that asphalt had been used to pave the road.It is said that this pavement has been repaired and added layers countless times in later generations, but everything added later has decayed, and only the earliest asphalt remains to this day.This inevitably makes us once again doubt the extent of human progress in many aspects.

In addition to this section of the road in the ancient city of Babylon, plus a passage engraved with animal images in front, a broken lion sculpture, and several house foundations, there is nothing else.When the Assyrians occupied it, they flooded the entire city with the water of the Euphrates River. The subsequent wars ended with the complete destruction of Babylon.As a result, there is really only one road left, which cannot be moved, burned or submerged, through which the losers flee and the winners enter.This aged bitumen became the only reliable witness of Babylonian civilization. Now, around the avenue of honor and other relics, many high walls and arches have been erected, which were built according to the restoration drawings guessed by archaeologists, and they are brand new and very neat.But when I got closer, I saw only high walls and arches, and there was still sand under my feet, no roof over my head, and nothing inside the walls, and weeds were overgrown.There is a sign saying, here is the North Palace, there is the South Palace, and the turn is the Summer Palace, but judging from the smell, this wasteland surrounded by new walls has become a temporary toilet for tourists.Chen Luyu introduced the history of the ancient city of Babylon to the camera, and then turned to me and said that she couldn't stand the restoration of so-called monuments that are new or old.

She feels exactly what I want.I remember many years ago when I heard that the Old Summer Palace in Beijing was going to be restored, I hurriedly wrote an article discussing the beauty of the ruins. This article was later included in middle school Chinese textbooks, but no one seemed to heed my appeal.I am not opposed to the restoration of all historical sites, such as the former residences of some celebrities, and pavilions and pavilions with great reputation but low cultural value. It is possible to restore and build those relics that have a strong sense of historical vicissitudes. The ruins were leveled and rebuilt, and even the old ones could not even be restored.What people want to pay homage to is the old grandmother who has gone through hardships and has wrinkles on her face. Renovating the old as new is equivalent to skin grafting and makeup for the old grandmother. worship.

In contrast, the Old Summer Palace is just a group of buildings that are not very old after all, and the ancient city of Babylon is so restored that people really don't know what to say.Lu Yu said that it is easiest to use this method to restore historical sites in places in the world where the economy is poor and the culture is backward. Looking back on our journey, from Greece, Egypt, Israel, and Jordan, all the monuments are carefully preserved with decaying columns, setting sun, and ancient steps, which makes people awe-inspiring. I have never encountered a restoration method like the ancient city of Babylon. I feel a little relieved in my heart.

Suddenly, I saw something strange in the bricks of the city wall, as if there were some cuneiform characters.Cuneiform is written by the ancients here more than 5,000 years ago on clay tablets with a wedge-shaped stick. It is one of the earliest human writings. It was discovered in the middle of the 19th century and almost changed the history of the origin of early human civilization. understanding.Could it be that the restoration authorities embedded a few pieces of truly priceless antiquities in the city wall?Lu Yu hurriedly brought a gentleman to ask questions, but it made people daze.It turns out that the text inscribed in the most primitive way is Arabic, and the text reads: Thank the great leader Saddam for restoring the ancient city of Babylon in 1982.I wrote it many times in a row.

There is a hill not far from the restored city wall, and on the top of the hill there is a huge modern building in the shape of a castle, overlooking the entire ruins of the ancient city of Babylon.Just as I was about to take a photo, someone immediately stopped me because this is the presidential palace.We have seen two presidential palaces in the city of Baghdad in the past two days, one of which is huge when viewed from the wall, and this is the third one.According to Mr. Gu Zhenglong, a reporter who was lucky enough to visit, it is as luxurious as the Louvre, but the paintings on the walls have no artistic value.

From this, I suddenly realized why there are so many barbed wire fences in front of the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon. November 12, 1999, Baghdad, overnight at Rasheed Hotel