https://www.livescience.com/28701-ancient-babylon-center-of-mesopotamian-civilization.html https://www.livescience.com/28701-ancient-babylon-center-of-... : als

https://www.livescience.com/28701-ancient-babylon-center-of-mesopotamian-civilization.html https://www.livescience.com/28701-ancient-babylon-center-of-... : also. This.. [..] "Most of the city was rebuilt by Saddam in the mid to late 1980s to recreate it as it was in the era of King Nebuchadnezzar, 600 B.C.," writes journalist Robert Galbraith in his book "Iraq: Eyewitness to War - A Photojournalist's Diary" (self-published, 2004). Galbraith reported from Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion and visited Babylon shortly after the U.S. occupation of Iraq began. Galbraith notes that around the time of the invasion the ancient city was looted and a group of U.S. Marines were eventually assigned to guard the site. Saddam Hussein had constructed a palace at Babylon that "looms over the city" but "is strikingly out of place," writes Galbraith. "It is a beautiful finely carved sandstone castle, and looks like an Arabian palace. But that's the problem; it is obtrusive, misplaced and tacky to the limit. It appears that Saddam tried to buy his way into the history books by building his monument overlooking the ancient city," writes Galbraith. Babylon would be turned into a U.S. military base. While this deterred some looting it caused damage to the ancient city and left more modern remains (including a basketball hoop) at the site that had to be cleaned up. After U.S. forces left, some cleanup and conservation work was done and the ancient city has been re-opened for tourists. In 2010 the U.S. government announced that it would spend $2 million to conserve Babylon's Ishtar Gate. [..]