Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek

In Babylon, Paul Kriwaçzek tells the story of ancient Mesopotamia from the earliest settlements around 5400 BC, to the eclipse of Babylon by the Persians in the sixth century BC. He chronicles the rise and fall of dynastic power during this period; he examines its numerous material, social and cultural innovations and inventions: the wheel, civil engineering, building bricks, the centralized state, the division of labour, organized religion, sculpture, education, mathematics, law and monumental building.

At the heart of Kriwaçzek's magisterial account, though, is the glory of Babylon - "gateway of the gods" - which rose to glorious prominence under the Amorite king, Hammurabi, who unified Babylonia between 1800 and 1750 BC. While Babylonian power would rise and fall over the ensuing centuries, it retained its importance as a cultural, religious and political centre until its fall to Cyrus the Great of Persia in 539 BC.