Babylon first rose to power under King Hammurabi (c. 1792–1750 BCE), whose code of laws, carved on a black stone stele, is one of the oldest legal texts we have.
Its second golden age came under Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 BCE), who rebuilt the city with huge double walls, the ziggurat Etemenanki, and the Ishtar Gate, faced with blue glazed bricks showing dragons and bulls. The Hanging Gardens may have stood here too, though no trace has been found.
Cyrus the Great of Persia took the city in 539 BCE, and Alexander the Great died in Nebuchadnezzar's palace in 323 BCE.
