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Thousands of years ago, stone was used to build many of the great cities. But in Mesopotamia, there was no stone for building. Yet one of the greatest kingdoms(王国) of the old world would be built there, and it would be built of brick (砖).
According to the Jewish Bible, the first people in southern Mesopotamia wanted to build a very tall tower to the sky. The Bible says that they "burned bricks in the fire. " Baked bricks, of course, are almost stone so the early Mesopotamians could build high buildings. Those early brick makers never built their tower to the sky, but they would go on to build cities of bricks. One of the cities they built became the ancient kingdom of Babylon.
Babylon, researchers say, was probably the largest city in the world in its day more than 200. 000. In the 18th century BC, Hammurabi was the king of Babylon. At that time he the laws (法律) he made and he is now still remembered by people because of the laws. After the death of Hammurabi, Babylon also began to die. The city was finally torn (拆毁) down by the Assyrians. But that was not Babylon.
In the 7th century BC, King Nebuchadnezzar began a project to build the city from brick again. From ancient texts, we learn that Nebuchadnezzar built huge buildings. In act, Babylon became famous for its giant buildings, one of which was ninety meters high. Perhaps Nebuchadnezzar was trying to be famous like those people in the Bible. He actually did one thing people remembered his name. He had his name stamped (盖印) on every brick that build Babylon's broken walls again. Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom did not last long, though. First, the Persians , and then the Greeks. Finally, the desert sand covered Babylon.
Just south of Baghdad, Iraq, is what's left of the kingdom of Babylon. It is now just a lot of bricks, but they bring a lot to memory a great kingdom .
