The Ishtar Gate was the main entrance into the great city of Babylon, commissioned by King Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC) as part of his plan to create one of the most splendid and powerful cities of the ancient world. The discovery of the ancient gate in 1902 by German archaeologist Robert Koldewey was met with awe, and its reconstruction in 1930 revealed its architectural splendor. But the discovery of the Gate of Ishtar revealed much more than the building accomplishments of the Babylonians; it shed light on the religious beliefs and customs of the once powerful Empire of Babylon.
The Role of Ishtar in Ancient Near Eastern Kingship Rituals
The Ishtar Gate is so named, because it was dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the East Semitic Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. She is the counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna, and in the Babylonian pantheon, she was the divine personification of the planet Venus. Her cult was the most important one in ancient Babylon; it is believed to have included temple prostitution, although this is debatable. According to the noted Assyriologist Samuel Noah Kramer, kings in the ancient Near Eastern region of Sumer established their legitimacy by taking part in a ritual sexual act in the temple of the fertility goddess Ishtar every year on the tenth day of the New Year festival Akitu.
Old Babylonian period Queen of Night relief, often considered to…
