Architecture
Ishtar Gate
Nabucodonosor II, c. 575 BC
Show the style
Ancient · chronological order 1
Where to see it
Pergamon Museum
Berlin · Germany
It stands in the museum's south wing, closed for works since 2023 and expected to reopen around 2037. The part reopening in 2027 does not include it.
The eighth gate of the inner walls of Babylon, built around 575 BC on the orders of Nebuchadnezzar II. It is faced with blue glazed bricks carrying low reliefs of bulls and dragons (the mušḫuššu, sacred animal of Marduk); the lions decorated the Processional Way that led up to it. The Berlin reconstruction mixes excavated ancient bricks with modern replacement pieces.