Art and Travel by Dave's video: The Complete Louvre Part 24: The Middle East II - Babylon Mesopotamia and The Code of Hammurabi

The Law Code of Hammurabi which is, emblematic of the Mesopotamian civilization, refers to a set of rules or laws enacted by the Babylonian King Hammurabi (reign 1792-1750 BC.). Babylon was the capital city of Babylonia, a kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia. This high basalt stele erected by the king of Babylon in the 1800 BC. is not only a work of art, but the most complete legal handbook of antiquity, dating back to earlier than the Biblical laws. The code governed the people living in Hammurabi‘s growing empire. By the time of Hammurabi's death, Babylon included much of modern-day Iraq, extending up from the Persian Gulf along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The 300 laws are best known from a stele made of black diorite. It was found at the site of Susa, in modern-day Iran, by excavators who were led by Jacques de Morgan at the beginning of the 20th century. Scholars believe that it was brought to Susa in the 12th century B.C.