Babylon ( Mesopotamia )

These huge statues come from the palace of Sargon the 2nd in Babylon These human headed winged bulls were protective genies and were placed as protectors at doorways of the palace Sonya is here to show the scale

Sargon founded his captial at Dur Sharrukin, present-day Khorsabad close to Mosul in Iraq

All these reliefs from Sargon's city date from around 700 BC

Carved from a single block this relief is more than 4 meters high by 4 meters wide and is a meter in depth.

The Divine Triad Dating from the 1st century AD, Syria, the statues here are of 3 Gods dressed in Roman atire

A Frieze of Archers Theses maybe the royal guards of Darius I, whom Herodotus called "the Immortals"

More Archers, it is not known for sure that these represent the Immortals

What are Archers without Lions ?

The Lions also come from the palace of Darius 1 at Susa, circa 500 BC

Capital of a column from the audience hall of the palace of Darius I There were 36 columns of the Royal hall, each stood 21 metres in height

This is a Cylinder Seal used much like seals today This one reminded me of a 1950's science fiction image with the towers

This guy is Ebih-Il, the Superintendent of Mari This statue dates from 2300 BC and was found during excavations in 1933 It was common for upper class people to create statues of themselves praying to the Gods

One of rooms showing the antiquities of Mesopotamia and the quality of the Louvre

Don't mess with this guy ! Arrggghhh ! "Scarfaces" are anthropomorphic dragon-snakes belonging to the mythology of central Asia, where they incarnated the hostile forces of the underworld. Their power was controlled not by killing them but by reducing them to silence by a slash across the right cheek. Thus dominated, they could become benevolent. Only four complete and three fragmentary examples of 'Scarfaces' are known The origin of this statue is unknown

The Law Code of Hammurabi Erected by King Hammurabi in the 18th century BC, it is one of the world's first and most important treatments of Law for humankind.