Bonekickers

History behind ‘The Cradle of Civilisation’: Alexander the Great enters Babylon

The Persian king, Cyrus the Great, captured Babylon in 539 BC, but rather than sacking it, made it one of his administrative centres - a role it maintained during the subsequent Persian Empire.

One of the most important finds from Babylon is the Cyrus cylinder, discovered in 1879, that justifies the capture of the city, and the peaceful intentions of Cyrus. During the Persian (Achaemenid) period, Babylon was at the centre of a huge empire that stretched from India to the Eastern Mediterranean.

Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king, eventually defeated this empire and he captured Babylon in 331 BC. Alexander died in Nebuchadnezzar’s palace in 323 BC. Thereafter the city’s fortunes declined, and by the mid second century BC had been abandoned.