Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The next oldest wonder on Philon's list was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The 5th-century Greek historian Herodotus has left us a full description of the gardens in all their glory. They were created over 2,500 years ago by King Nebuchadnezzar II (?-562 B.C.). Some say he had them made to delight his young bride, who came from mountainous Persia. Babylonia lay in the flat land of Mesopotamia and had no mountains. On the banks of the Euphrates River, which flowed through his royal city, the King's workmen raised an artificial hill 350 feet high. It was terraced with a series of platforms set with trees, lawns, and flowers. Water from the river was pumped to the top of the hill and allowed to flow down through channels and miniature waterfalls. A haven of coolness and beauty was created in that hot, thirsty land. Little remains of Babylon today except mounds of crumbling mud brick. Among these the German archeologist Robert Koldewey (1855-1925) traced the foundations of what may have been the famous Hanging Gardens.