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Updated: May 12, 2025
In the first place, the close relationship between Marduk and Nabu was emphasized by placing a papakhu to Nabu in the precinct of E-Sagila, which built in imitation of E-Zida at Borsippa was called by the same name. This papakhu, it would seem, was independent of a special temple to Nabu known as E-Makh-tila, and which lay in Borsippa.
Statues of the god were erected and deposited in shrines built for the purpose, although the fact was not lost sight of that the real dwelling-place of the god was in Borsippa. At the end of the ninth century B.C. this cult seems to have reached its height.
The visit of Nabu marked the homage of the gods to Marduk; and Nabu set the example for other gods, who were all supposed to assemble in E-Sagila during the great festival. We have already pointed out that the cult of Nabu at Borsippa at one time was regarded with greater sanctity than the Marduk worship in Babylon.
Indeed, when Nebuchadnezzar speaks of three temples to Gula being erected in Borsippa, it is certain that they could not have been within the precinct of E-Zida, and so the temples to Shamash and Ramman, Sin and Ishtar, as well as to Nabu in Babylon, had an independent position; but we are at least warranted in concluding that they were not far removed from E-Sagila, and so, likewise, the numerous temples enumerated by Nebuchadnezzar as erected or improved by him in Borsippa were not far distant from Nabu's sanctuary, the famous E-Zida.
An engagement ensued, of which we possess no details; our informants simply tell us that the Babylonian monarch was completely defeated, and that, while most of his army sought safety within the walls of the capital, he himself with a small body of troops threw himself into Borsippa, an important town lying at a short distance from Babylon towards the south-west.
Bel and Merodach were in a peculiar way the gods of Babylon, Nebo of Borsippa, Nergal of Cutha, the Moon of Ur or Hur, Beltis of Niffer, Hea or Hoa of Hit, Ana of Erech, the Sun of Sippara. Without being exclusively honored at a single site, the deities in question held the foremost place each in his own town.
To these constructions may be added, on the authority either of Nebuchadnezzar's own inscriptions or of the existing remains, the Birs-i-Nimrud, or great temple of Nebo at Bor-sippa; a vast reservoir in Babylon itself, called the Yapur-Shapu; an extensive embankment along the course of the Tigris, near Baghdad; and almost innumerable temples, walls, and other public buildings at Cutha, Sippara, Borsippa, Babylon, Chilmad, Bit-Digla, etc.
Upon these works his prisoners of war, Syrians and Egyptians, Jews and Arabs, were employed in vast numbers. The great wall of Babylon was set up anew; so was the temple of Nebo at Borsippa; the reservoir at Sippara, the royal canal, and a part at least of Lake Pallacopas, were excavated; Kouti, Sippara, Borsippa, Babel, rose upon their own ruins.
The sacred edifice, as the dwelling of the god to whom it is dedicated, leads to such names as E-Zida, 'the true house or fixed house, the famous temple to Nabu in Borsippa; E-dur-gina, 'the house of the established seat, a temple of Bel-sarbi in Baz; E-ki-dur -garza, 'the sacred dwelling, a temple to Nin-lil-anna in Babylon; E-kua, 'the dwelling-house, the name of the papakhu of Marduk in E-Sagila; E-gi-umunna, 'the permanent dwelling'; E-esh -gi, a shrine to Nin-girsu at Lagash with the same meaning, 'permanent house.
Nabunazir, then king in Babylon, bowed before him and swore fidelity to him, and he visited Sippar, Nipur, Babylon, Borsippa, Kuta, Kishu, Dilbat and Uruk, Babylonian "cities without a peer," and offered sacrifices to all their gods to Bel Zirbanit, Nebo, Tashmit, and Nir-gal. This settlement took place in 745 B.C.
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