The Babylonian Map of the World (or Imago Mundi) is a Babylonian clay tablet containing a labeled depiction of the known world, with a short and partially lost description, dated to roughly the 6th century BC (Neo-Babylonian or early Achaemenid period).

Babylonian Map of the World

The Babylonian map of the world, from Sippar, Mesopotamia..JPG

Obverse

Material

Clay

Size

Height: 12.2 cm (4.8 in)

Width: 8.2 cm (3.2 in)

Writing

cuneiform

Created

~6th century BC

Period/culture

Neo-Babylonian

/ early Achaemenid period

Place

Sippar

Present location

British Museum, (BM 92687)

The map is centered on the EUPHRATES, flowing from the NORTH (top) to the south (bottom). The city of Babylon is shown on the Euphrates, in the northern half of the map. The mouth of the Euphrates is labelled "swamp" and "outflow". Susa, the capital of Elam, is shown to the south, URARTU to the northeast, and Habban, the capital of the Kassites is shown (incorrectly) to the northwest. Mesopotamia is surrounded by a circular "bitter river" or Ocean, and eight "regions", depicted as triangular sections, are shown as LYING beyond the Ocean. It has been suggested that the depiction of these "regions" as triangles might indicate that they were imagined as MOUNTAINS.[1]

The tablet was discovered at Sippar, Baghdad Vilayet, some 60 km north of Babylon on the east bank of the Euphrates River. The text was first translated in 1889.[2] The clay tablet resides at the British Museum (BM 92687).[3]

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