1.
Equinox
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An equinox is the moment in which the plane of Earths equator passes through the center of the Sun, which occurs twice each year, around 20 March and 23 September. On an equinox, day and night are of equal duration all over the planet. They are not exactly equal, however, due to the size of the sun. To avoid this ambiguity, the word equilux is sometimes used to mean a day in which the durations of light, see Length of equinoctial day and night for further discussion. The word is derived from the Latin aequinoctium, aequus and nox, the equinoxes are the only times when the solar terminator is perpendicular to the equator. As a result, the northern and southern hemispheres are equally illuminated, the word comes from Latin equi or equal and nox meaning night. In other words, the equinoxes are the times when the subsolar point is on the equator. The subsolar point crosses the equator moving northward at the March equinox, the equinoxes, along with solstices, are directly related to the seasons of the year. In the southern hemisphere, the equinox occurs in September. When Julius Caesar established the Julian calendar in 45 BC, he set 25 March as the date of the spring equinox. Because the Julian year is longer than the tropical year. By 1500 AD, it had drifted backwards to 11 March and this drift induced Pope Gregory XIII to create a modern Gregorian calendar. However, the leap year intervals in his calendar were not smooth and this causes the equinox to oscillate by about 53 hours around its mean position. This in turn raised the possibility that it could fall on 22 March, the astronomers chose the appropriate number of days to omit so that the equinox would swing from 19 to 21 March but never fall on the 22nd. Vernal equinox and Autumnal equinox, these names are direct derivatives of Latin. The equivalent common language English terms spring equinox and autumn equinox are even more ambiguous, March equinox and September equinox, names referring to the months of the year they occur, with no ambiguity as to which hemisphere is the context. They are still not universal, however, as not all use a solar-based calendar where the equinoxes occur every year in the same month. Northward equinox and southward equinox, names referring to the apparent direction of motion of the Sun
2.
Earth
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Earth, otherwise known as the World, or the Globe, is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life. It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets, according to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago. Earths gravity interacts with objects in space, especially the Sun. During one orbit around the Sun, Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times, thus, Earths axis of rotation is tilted, producing seasonal variations on the planets surface. The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides, stabilizes the Earths orientation on its axis, Earths lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of Earths surface is covered with water, mostly by its oceans, the remaining 29% is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes, rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. The majority of Earths polar regions are covered in ice, including the Antarctic ice sheet, Earths interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the Earths magnetic field, and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics. Within the first billion years of Earths history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earths atmosphere and surface, some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Earths distance from the Sun, physical properties, in the history of the Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events. Over 99% of all species that lived on Earth are extinct. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely, over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival. Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures, politically, the world has about 200 sovereign states, the modern English word Earth developed from a wide variety of Middle English forms, which derived from an Old English noun most often spelled eorðe. It has cognates in every Germanic language, and their proto-Germanic root has been reconstructed as *erþō, originally, earth was written in lowercase, and from early Middle English, its definite sense as the globe was expressed as the earth. By early Modern English, many nouns were capitalized, and the became the Earth. More recently, the name is simply given as Earth. House styles now vary, Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, another convention capitalizes Earth when appearing as a name but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the. It almost always appears in lowercase in colloquial expressions such as what on earth are you doing, the oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4. 5672±0.0006 billion years ago. By 4. 54±0.04 Gya the primordial Earth had formed, the formation and evolution of Solar System bodies occurred along with the Sun
3.
Spring (season)
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Spring is one of the four conventional temperate seasons, following winter and preceding summer. There are various definitions of spring, but local usage of the term varies according to local climate, cultures. When it is spring in the Northern Hemisphere, it will be autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, at the spring equinox, days are approximately 12 hours long with day length increasing as the season progresses. Spring and springtime refer to the season, and also to ideas of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection, subtropical and tropical areas have climates better described in terms of other seasons, e. g. dry or wet, monsoonal or cyclonic. Often, cultures have locally defined names for seasons which have little equivalence to the terms originating in Europe, Spring is the time when many plants begin to grow and flower. Meteorologists generally define four seasons in many areas, spring, summer, autumn. These are demarcated by the values of their average temperatures on a monthly basis, the three warmest months are by definition summer, the three coldest months are winter and the intervening gaps are spring and autumn. Spring, when defined in this manner, can start on different dates in different regions, in most Northern Hemisphere, temperate locations, spring months are March, April and May, although differences exist from country to country. Most Southern Hemisphere, temperate locations have opposing seasons with spring in September, October and November, in Australia and New Zealand, spring conventionally begins on 1 September and ends 30 November. In some cultures in the Northern Hemisphere, the astronomical Vernal equinox is taken to mark the first day of spring, in Persian culture the first day of spring is the first day of the first month which begins on 20 or 21 March. In other traditions, the equinox is taken as mid-spring, similarly, according to the Celtic tradition, which is based solely on daylight and the strength of the noon sun, spring begins in early February and continues until early May. In Ireland, spring traditionally starts on February 1, St Brigids Day, the beginning of spring is not always determined by fixed calendar dates. These indicators, along with the beginning of spring, vary according to the local climate, most ecologists divide the year into six seasons that have no fixed dates. In addition to spring, ecological reckoning identifies an earlier separate prevernal season between the hibernal and vernal seasons and this is a time when only the hardiest flowers like the crocus are in bloom, sometimes while there is still some snowcover on the ground. During early spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt relative to the Sun, the hemisphere begins to warm significantly, causing new plant growth to spring forth, giving the season its name. Any snow begins to melt, swelling streams with runoff and any frosts become less severe, in climates that have no snow, and rare frosts, air and ground temperatures increase more rapidly. Many flowering plants bloom at this time of year, in a succession, sometimes beginning when snow is still on the ground. In normally snowless areas, spring may begin as early as February, heralded by the blooming of deciduous magnolias, cherries, and quince, or August in the same way
4.
Winter
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Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates, between autumn and spring. Winter is caused by the axis of the Earth in that hemisphere being oriented away from the Sun, different cultures define different dates as the start of winter, and some use a definition based on weather. When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, in many regions, winter is associated with snow and freezing temperatures. The moment of winter solstice is when the elevation with respect to the North or South Pole is at its most negative value, meaning this day will have the shortest day. The English word winter comes from the Proto-Indo-European root wend, relating to water, the tilt of the Earths axis relative to its orbital plane plays a large role in the formation of weather. The Earth is tilted at an angle of 23. 44° to the plane of its orbit, when it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere faces the Sun more directly and thus experiences warmer temperatures than the Northern Hemisphere. Conversely, winter in the Southern Hemisphere occurs when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted more toward the Sun, from the perspective of an observer on the Earth, the winter Sun has a lower maximum altitude in the sky than the summer Sun. During winter in either hemisphere, the altitude of the Sun causes the sunlight to hit that hemisphere at an oblique angle. In regions experiencing winter, the amount of solar radiation is spread out over a larger area. This effect is compounded by the distance that the light must travel through the atmosphere. Compared with these effects, the changes in the distance of the earth from the sun are negligible, the manifestation of the meteorological winter in the northerly snow–prone parallels is highly variable depending on elevation, position versus marine winds and the amount of precipitation. A case in point is Canada, a country associated with tough winters. Winnipeg on the Great Plains at a distance from large bodies of water has a January high of −11.3 °C. In comparison, Vancouver on the coast with an influence from moderating Pacific winds has a January low of 1.4 °C with days well above freezing at 6.9 °C. Both areas are on the 49th parallel north and in the western half of the continent. Winter is often defined by meteorologists to be the three months with the lowest average temperatures. This corresponds to the months of December, January and February in the Northern Hemisphere, the coldest average temperatures of the season are typically experienced in January or February in the Northern Hemisphere and in June, July or August in the Southern Hemisphere. Blizzards often develop and cause many transportation delays, diamond dust, also known as ice needles or ice crystals, forms at temperatures approaching −40 °F due to air with slightly higher moisture from aloft mixing with colder, surface based air
5.
Autumn
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Autumn, also known as fall in North American English, is one of the four temperate seasons. One of its features is the shedding of leaves from deciduous trees. Some cultures regard the autumnal equinox as mid-autumn, while others with a longer temperature lag treat it as the start of autumn. Meteorologists use a definition based on months, with autumn being September, October and November in the northern hemisphere, in North America, autumn is usually considered to start with the September equinox and end with the winter solstice. As daytime and nighttime temperatures decrease, trees shed their leaves, in traditional East Asian solar term, autumn starts on or around 8 August and ends on or about 7 November. In Ireland, the autumn months according to the meteorological service. In Australia and New Zealand, autumn officially begins on 1 March, the word autumn comes from the ancient Etruscan root autu- and has within it connotations of the passing of the year. It was borrowed by the neighbouring Romans, and became the Latin word autumnus, after the Roman era, the word continued to be used as the Old French word autompne or autumpne in Middle English, and was later normalized to the original Latin. In the Medieval period, there are examples of its use as early as the 12th century. Before the 16th century, harvest was the usually used to refer to the season. The alternative word fall for the season traces its origins to old Germanic languages, the exact derivation is unclear, with the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. However, these all have the meaning to fall from a height and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term came to denote the season in 16th century England, during the 17th century, English emigration to the British colonies in North America was at its peak, and the new settlers took the English language with them. While the term gradually became obsolete in Britain, it became the more common term in North America. The name backend, a common name for the season in Northern England, has today been largely replaced by the name autumn. Association with the transition from warm to cold weather, and its status as the season of the primary harvest, has dominated its themes. In Western cultures, personifications of autumn are usually pretty, well-fed females adorned with fruits, vegetables, many cultures feature autumnal harvest festivals, often the most important on their calendars. There are also the many North American Indian festivals tied to harvest of ripe foods gathered in the wild, the Chinese Mid-Autumn or Moon festival, and many others
6.
Summer
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Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, falling between spring and autumn. At the summer solstice, the days are longest and the nights are shortest, the date of the beginning of summer varies according to climate, tradition and culture. When it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, a variable seasonal lag means that the meteorological center of the season, which is based on average temperature patterns, occurs several weeks after the time of maximal insolation. Under meteorological definitions, all seasons are set to start at the beginning of a calendar month. This meteorological definition of summer also aligns with the commonly viewed notion of summer as the season with the longest days of the year, the meteorological reckoning of seasons is used in Australia, Austria, Denmark, the former Soviet Union and Japan. It is also used by many in the United Kingdom, in Ireland, the summer months according to the national meteorological service, Met Éireann, are June, July and August. However, according to the Irish Calendar, summer begins on 1 May, school textbooks in Ireland follow the cultural norm of summer commencing on 1 May rather than the meteorological definition of 1 June. Reckoning by hours of daylight alone, summer solstice marks the midpoint, not the beginning, midsummer takes place over the shortest night of the year, which is the summer solstice, or on a nearby date that varies with tradition. Where a seasonal lag of half a season or more is common, by this method, in North America, summer is the period from the summer solstice to the autumn equinox. The similar Canadian tradition starts summer on Victoria Day one week prior and ends, as in the United States, on Labour Day. In Chinese astronomy, summer starts on or around 5 May, with the known as lìxià, i. e. establishment of summer. In Australia and New Zealand, summer begins on 1 December. Summer is traditionally associated with hot or warm weather, in the Mediterranean regions, it is also associated with dry weather, while in other places it is associated with rainy weather. The wet season is the period of vegetation growth within the savanna climate regime. Where the wet season is associated with a shift in the prevailing winds. In the northern Atlantic Ocean, a tropical cyclone season occurs from 1 June to 30 November. The statistical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is 10 September, the Northeast Pacific Ocean has a broader period of activity, but in a similar time frame to the Atlantic. The Northwest Pacific sees tropical cyclones year-round, with a minimum in February and March, in the North Indian basin, storms are most common from April to December, with peaks in May and November
7.
Astronomy
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Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It applies mathematics, physics, and chemistry, in an effort to explain the origin of those objects and phenomena and their evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and comets, while the phenomena include supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, more generally, all astronomical phenomena that originate outside Earths atmosphere are within the purview of astronomy. A related but distinct subject, physical cosmology, is concerned with the study of the Universe as a whole, Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history, such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Nubians, Iranians, Chinese, during the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects, theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain the results and observations being used to confirm theoretical results. Astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can play an active role, especially in the discovery. Amateur astronomers have made and contributed to many important astronomical discoveries, Astronomy means law of the stars. Astronomy should not be confused with astrology, the system which claims that human affairs are correlated with the positions of celestial objects. Although the two share a common origin, they are now entirely distinct. Generally, either the term astronomy or astrophysics may be used to refer to this subject, however, since most modern astronomical research deals with subjects related to physics, modern astronomy could actually be called astrophysics. Few fields, such as astrometry, are purely astronomy rather than also astrophysics, some titles of the leading scientific journals in this field includeThe Astronomical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal and Astronomy and Astrophysics. In early times, astronomy only comprised the observation and predictions of the motions of objects visible to the naked eye, in some locations, early cultures assembled massive artifacts that possibly had some astronomical purpose. Before tools such as the telescope were invented, early study of the stars was conducted using the naked eye, most of early astronomy actually consisted of mapping the positions of the stars and planets, a science now referred to as astrometry. From these observations, early ideas about the motions of the planets were formed, and the nature of the Sun, Moon, the Earth was believed to be the center of the Universe with the Sun, the Moon and the stars rotating around it. This is known as the model of the Universe, or the Ptolemaic system. The Babylonians discovered that lunar eclipses recurred in a cycle known as a saros
8.
Constellation
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A constellation is formally defined as a region of the celestial sphere, with boundaries laid down by the International Astronomical Union. The constellation areas mostly had their origins in Western-traditional patterns of stars from which the constellations take their names, in 1922, the International Astronomical Union officially recognized the 88 modern constellations, which cover the entire sky. They began as the 48 classical Greek constellations laid down by Ptolemy in the Almagest, Constellations in the far southern sky are late 16th- and mid 18th-century constructions. 12 of the 88 constellations compose the zodiac signs, though the positions of the constellations only loosely match the dates assigned to them in astrology. The term constellation can refer to the stars within the boundaries of that constellation. Notable groupings of stars that do not form a constellation are called asterisms, when astronomers say something is “in” a given constellation they mean it is within those official boundaries. Any given point in a coordinate system can unambiguously be assigned to a single constellation. Many astronomical naming systems give the constellation in which an object is found along with a designation in order to convey a rough idea in which part of the sky it is located. For example, the Flamsteed designation for bright stars consists of a number, the word constellation seems to come from the Late Latin term cōnstellātiō, which can be translated as set of stars, and came into use in English during the 14th century. It also denotes 88 named groups of stars in the shape of stellar-patterns, the Ancient Greek word for constellation was ἄστρον. Colloquial usage does not draw a distinction between constellation in the sense of an asterism and constellation in the sense of an area surrounding an asterism. The modern system of constellations used in astronomy employs the latter concept, the term circumpolar constellation is used for any constellation that, from a particular latitude on Earth, never sets below the horizon. From the North Pole or South Pole, all constellations south or north of the equator are circumpolar constellations. In the equatorial or temperate latitudes, the term equatorial constellation has sometimes been used for constellations that lie to the opposite the circumpolar constellations. They generally include all constellations that intersect the celestial equator or part of the zodiac, usually the only thing the stars in a constellation have in common is that they appear near each other in the sky when viewed from the Earth. In galactic space, the stars of a constellation usually lie at a variety of distances, since stars also travel on their own orbits through the Milky Way, the star patterns of the constellations change slowly over time. After tens to hundreds of thousands of years, their familiar outlines will become unrecognisable, the terms chosen for the constellation themselves, together with the appearance of a constellation, may reveal where and when its constellation makers lived. The earliest direct evidence for the constellations comes from inscribed stones and it seems that the bulk of the Mesopotamian constellations were created within a relatively short interval from around 1300 to 1000 BC
9.
Taurus (constellation)
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Taurus is one of the constellations of the zodiac, which means it is crossed by the plane of the ecliptic. Taurus is a large and prominent constellation in the northern hemispheres winter sky and it is one of the oldest constellations, dating back to at least the Early Bronze Age when it marked the location of the Sun during the spring equinox. Its importance to the agricultural calendar influenced various bull figures in the mythologies of Ancient Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, a number of features exist that are of interest to astronomers. Taurus hosts two of the nearest open clusters to Earth, the Pleiades and the Hyades, both of which are visible to the naked eye, at first magnitude, the red giant Aldebaran is the brightest star in the constellation. In the northwest part of Taurus is the supernova remnant Messier 1, one of the closest regions of active star formation, the Taurus-Auriga complex, crosses into the northern part of the constellation. The variable star T Tauri is the prototype of a class of pre-main-sequence stars, in September and October, Taurus is visible in the evening along the eastern horizon. The most favorable time to observe Taurus in the sky is during the months of December. By March and April, the constellation will appear to the west during the evening twilight and this constellation forms part of the zodiac, and hence is intersected by the ecliptic. This circle across the sphere forms the apparent path of the Sun as the Earth completes its annual orbit. As the orbital plane of the Moon and the planets lie near the ecliptic, the galactic plane of the Milky Way intersects the northeast corner of the constellation and the galactic anticenter is located near the border between Taurus and Auriga. Taurus is the only constellation crossed by all three of the equator, celestial equator, and ecliptic. A ring-like galactic structure known as the Goulds Belt passes through the Taurus constellation, the recommended three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is Tau. The official constellation boundaries, as set by Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 26 segments. In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between 03h 23. 4m and 05h 53. 3m, while the coordinates are between 31. 10° and −1. 35°. Because a small part of the lies to the south of the celestial equator. During November, the Taurid meteor shower appears to radiate from the direction of this constellation. The Beta Taurid meteor shower occurs during the months of June and July in the daytime, between 18 and 29 October, both the Northern Taurids and the Southern Taurids are active, though the latter stream is stronger. However, between November 1 and 10, the two streams equalize, the brightest member of this constellation is Aldebaran, an orange-hued, spectral class K5 III giant star
10.
Refraction
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Refraction is the change in direction of wave propagation due to a change in its transmission medium. The phenomenon is explained by the conservation of energy and the conservation of momentum, due to the change of medium, the phase velocity of the wave is changed but its frequency remains constant. This is most commonly observed when a wave passes from one medium to another at any other than 0° from the normal. In optics, refraction is a phenomenon that occurs when waves travel from a medium with a given refractive index to a medium with another at an oblique angle. At the boundary between the media, the phase velocity is altered, usually causing a change in direction. Its wavelength increases or decreases, but its frequency remains constant, for example, a light ray will refract as it enters and leaves glass, assuming there is a change in refractive index. A ray traveling along the normal will change speed, but not direction, refraction still occurs in this case. Understanding of this led to the invention of lenses and the refracting telescope. Refraction can be seen looking into a bowl of water. Air has a index of about 1.0003. If a person looks at an object, such as a pencil or straw, which is placed at a slant, partially in the water. This is due to the bending of light rays as they move from the water to the air, once the rays reach the eye, the eye traces them back as straight lines. The lines of sight intersect at a position than where the actual rays originated. This causes the pencil to appear higher and the water to appear shallower than it really is, the depth that the water appears to be when viewed from above is known as the apparent depth. This is an important consideration for spearfishing from the surface because it will make the fish appear to be in a different place. Conversely, an object above the water has a higher apparent height when viewed from below the water, the opposite correction must be made by an archer fish. For small angles of incidence, the ratio of apparent to real depth is the ratio of the indexes of air to that of water. But, as the angle of incidence approaches 90o, the apparent depth approaches zero, albeit reflection increases, the diagram on the right shows an example of refraction in water waves
11.
Inanna
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Inanna was the Sumerian goddess of love, beauty, sexual desire, fertility, knowledge, wisdom, war, and combat. She was also the goddess of the E-Anna temple at the city of Uruk. She was one of the most widely venerated deities in the ancient Sumerian pantheon and her Akkadian and Babylonian equivalent was the goddess Ishtar. Several of her most important myths involve the story of her descent into and return from Kur, Inanna was the most prominent female deity in ancient Mesopotamia. As early as the Uruk period, Inanna was associated with the city of Uruk. The famous Uruk Vase depicts a row of naked men carrying various objects, bowls, vessels, and baskets of farm products and this figure was ornately dressed for a divine marriage, and attended by a servant. Especially in the Uruk period, the symbol of a ring-headed doorpost is associated with Inanna, seal impressions from the Jemdet Nasr period show a fixed sequence of city symbols including those of Ur, Larsa, Zabalam, Urum, Arina, and probably Kesh. It is likely that this list reflects the report of contributions to Inanna at Uruk from cities supporting her cult and they had been used to lock storerooms to preserve materials set aside for her cult. Inannas primary temple of worship was the Eanna, located in Uruk and her temple, the Eanna would also seem to have been taken from Anu, the head of the Sumerian pantheon, prior to the rise of Enlil of Nippur. Inannas name derives from Lady of Heaven, the cuneiform sign of Inanna, however, is not a ligature of the signs lady and sky. The view that there was a Proto-Euphratean substrate language in Southern Iraq before Sumerian is not widely accepted by modern Assyriologists, Inanna was one of the most widely venerated deities in the Sumerian pantheon. Many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna were built along the Tigris, the deity of this fourth-millennium city was probably originally An. After its dedication to Inanna the temple seems to have housed priestesses of the goddess, a Sacred Marriage to Inanna may have conferred legitimacy on a number of rulers of Uruk. Gilgamesh is reputed to have refused marriage to Inanna, on the grounds of her misalliance with such kings as Lugalbanda, Inannas symbol is an eight-pointed star or a rosette. She was associated with lions – even then a symbol of power – and was depicted standing on the backs of two lionesses. Her cuneiform ideogram was a twisted knot of reeds, representing the doorpost of the storehouse. Inanna was associated with the planet Venus, which at time was regarded as two stars, the morning star and the evening star. There are hymns to Inanna as her astral manifestation and it also is believed that in many myths about Inanna, including Inannas Descent to the Underworld and Inanna and Shukaletuda, her movements correspond with the movements of Venus in the sky
12.
Ishtar Gate
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The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the side of the city. It was excavated in the early 20th century and a reconstruction using original bricks is now shown in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin. Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the gate was constructed using glazed brick with alternating rows of bas-relief mušḫuššu and aurochs, symbolizing the gods Marduk, the roof and doors of the gate were of cedar, according to the dedication plaque. The gate was covered in lapis lazuli, a deep-blue semi-precious stone that was revered in antiquity due to its vibrancy and these blue glazed bricks would have given the façade a jewel-like shine. Through the gate ran the Processional Way, which was lined with walls showing about 120 lions, bulls, dragons and flowers on enameled yellow and black glazed bricks, the gate itself depicted only gods and goddesses. These included Ishtar, Adad and Marduk, during celebrations of the New Year, statues of the deities were paraded through the gate and down the Processional Way. The gate, being part of the Walls of Babylon, was considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the World and it was replaced on that list by the Lighthouse of Alexandria from the third century BC. A reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way was built at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin out of material excavated by Robert Koldewey and it stands 14 m high and 30 m wide. The excavation ran from 1902 to 1914, and, during time,14 m of the foundation of the gate was uncovered. Claudius James Rich, British resident of Baghdad and a self-taught historian, acting as a scholar and collecting field data, he was determined to discover the wonders to the ancient world. C. J. Richs topographical records of the ruins in Babylon were the first ever published and it was reprinted in England no fewer than three times. C. J. Robert Koldewey, a successful German excavator, had previous work for the Royal Museum of Berlin, with his excavations at Surghul. Koldeweys part in Babylons excavation began in 1899, the method that the British were comfortable with was excavating tunnels and deep trenches, which was damaging the mud brick architecture of the foundation. Instead, it was suggested that the team focus on tablets. Despite the destructive nature of the used, the recording of data was immensely more thorough than in previous Mesopotamian excavations. Walter Andre, one of Koldeweys many assistants, was an architect and a draftsman and his contribution was documentation and reconstruction of Babylon. A small museum was built at the site and Andre was the museums first director, one of most complex and impressive architectural reconstructions in the history of archaeology, was the rebuilding of Babylons Ishtar gate and processional way in Berlin
