Hanging Out in Ancient Babylon

Muddy in winter, dusty in summer… the roads [in ancient Babylon] wind without much planning between compact blocks of houses, blank windowless facades pierced by occasional small doors. Here and there, however, little shops grouped in bazaars or set among the houses throw a note of gaiety in the austere scenery. Like the shops of a modern oriental suq, they consist of a showroom opening widely on to the street, and of one or several back rooms for the storage of goods. Food, clothes, rugs, pots, spices and perfumes are sold in disorderly, colorful and aromatic displays. At intervals, the red glow of a furnace in the smithy’s dark workshop, the brick counter of a ‘restaurant’ where one can purchase and eat from clay bowls onions, cucumbers, fried fish or tasty slices of grilled meat, or a small chapel advertised by terra-cotta figurines hung on either side of the doorway. To enter the courtyard, drop a handful of dates or flour on the altar and address a short prayer to the god smiling in his niche takes only a few minutes and confers long-lasting blessings.