Ishtar Gate

Overview

The Ishtar Gate was the ceremonial northern gate of inner Babylon, built about 575 BC under Nebuchadnezzar II and dedicated to the goddess Ishtar. Its walls were faced in deep blue glazed brick and set with rows of moulded animals in relief: dragons of Marduk and bulls of the storm god Adad on the gate itself, and lions along the Processional Way that ran through it into the city.

Archaeological Evidence

Robert Koldewey excavated the gate between 1902 and 1914, recovering tens of thousands of glazed brick fragments. Part of the structure was reconstructed from that material in Berlin, where it opened to the public in 1930 and remains on display. The reconstruction is neither the whole gate nor its full size: the original was a double gate, and only the smaller frontal section was rebuilt. The foundations remain at Babylon in Iraq.

Biblical Significance

The gate is not named in Scripture. It was, however, the face the city presented to those who entered it during the years Judah was carried into exile, and the city it fronted is the Babylon of Jeremiah's prophecies and of the deportations under Nebuchadnezzar II.