Latest Obsession-the Ishtar Gate

March 13, 2011 in Uncategorized

So, what seems like a long time ago now, we were in Berlin.  I was invited to speak at a conference there (!) so we made a little vacation out of it.  I really like Berlin-amazing night life, underground art scene, food.  Plus the people are really friendly.  Really friendly.  I think the Berliners are still making amends, you know, for the everything.

Some of my favorite things about Berlin, however, are the museums.  They have over 180 museums, so you can bet that they know what they are doing.  We went to A LOT  of museums during the trip:  The Hamburger Bahnhof (a modern art museum with a funny name!), The Medical History Museum (fetuses in jars-some of us liked it better than others of us), The Neues Museum (with an amazing Egyptian collection, and the famed bust of Nefertiti, although my favorite part of the museum was the way they restored it after it was almost completely destroyed by bombing during WWII), The Computerspiele (a disappointing video game museum where kids hogged all the video games-if you are an adult and you kick kids off of games even though they have been playing that pong machine for well over an hour and really their parents should be encouraging them to share, you are always gonna be the dick.  Always.).  But my favorite museum is the Pergamon Museum.  And why?  Because of this:

The Ishtar Gate! (photo by youngrobv)

I am completely in love with the Ishtar Gate.  I forced Brett to go back to the Pergamon Museum because I wanted to see the gate a second time.  And I marveled at it.  I suspect that every time I am in Berlin, I will want to go and see the Ishtar Gate.  And why not?  It is stunning. Enormous, covered in glittering azure tiles and reliefs of aurochs (bulls) and dragons, this gate takes my breath away.  And this reconstruction is only the smaller, external gate.  There is a second, internal gate that is TOO BIG to dispaly! It is, sadly, in storage (where does one store something that big?).

The gate was built in ancient Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar II (come on-that is cool!) during his reign from 604-562BC.  It was, until it got beat out by the Lighthouse as Alexandria, on of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.  I don’t know who makes that ruling, but I would definitely argue for the Ishtar Gate to be promoted back to a wonder.

And to really give you a sense of the majesty of the gate, they have also reconstructed the processional way, decorated with tile reliefs of striding lions, leading to it.

I took this same photo of the processional way lions last time we were in Berlin.  In fact, I took it about 7 times.  This lion is 2500 years old!

But my favorite part of the Gate?  The dragons!

A study for the dragon, in unglazed tiles.  These dragons really have it all, a horn, the head of a serpent, front feet of a lion, back feet of an eagle, and a plumed tail.  Apparently, the Babylonians believed these animals truly existed, and there is some thought that they may be related to an ancient rhinocerous.

In short, I highly recommend the Ishtar Gate, and the Pergamon Museum in general.  This is only one of a number of amazing reconstructions they have there-the Market Gate from Miletus, the Mshatta Facade, the Aleppo Room, and of course, the Pergamon Altar-all restored and rebuilt.  A.MAZ.ING.

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