Ancient manuscript reveals who built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
To this day it remains a mystery who built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. These gardens are one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Wizard Zulmiro found a manuscript that finally solves this millennia old
mystery that has long intrigued historians and archaeologists.
Due to the passage of time, some of the letters of the precious fragile manuscript are scrambled.
Your help is of the utmost importance to recuperate this piece of the History of Humankind.
Correct all the mistakes to salvage the manuscript and discover who built the famous hanging gardens!
Click on the wrong red words to correct them. Then click on the button "Turn the page".
A long time ago, in ancient Babylon, Prince Ara the Beautiful, surprised his wife, Queen Semiramis
with a bundle of clothes
containningcontaining
a small fragile being.
"This is our new
daugterdaughter,
sent by the gods, who I found by the river", he said.
Semiramis, a no nonsense woman, raised a skeptical eyebrow. However,
curiositicuriosity
soon overcame the most powerful of all monarchs who
peeked inside the bundle and saw a little green eyed, green haired creature with pointy hears and bronze skin.
The genesis of such a being could only have been caused by
divinnedivine
intervention and the will of the gods is not be defied. The baby would promptly be accepted in the royal household.
Liliam, the little adopted princess grew an aloof dreamer to her mother's great annoyance:
"The gods can only be making fun of me! They sent me a daughter who spends all her time looking at flowers and
who couldn't care less about
pouliticspolitics
and court life!"
"If our little lady likes flowers, them she should be given the means to build a garden",
sugestedsuggested,
the father.
The matriarch was horrified by such an idea, "A garden?! What a
proposterouspreposterous
useless project husband! What use is a garden for except for draining our kingdom's accounts?".
The queen was quite proud of the healthy finances of her kingdom. Unlike other unorganized nations, hers had zero deficit.
After such a response, a
shaddowshadow
of sadness came across Ara's face.
Ara was the most handsome among all princes. When Queen Semiramis gathered her armies to conquer Armenia, the prince awaited
her in front of the city gates and offered her his hand. Impressed by the dauphin's beauty, Semiramis sent her armies back and
conqeredconquered
the prince, to afterwards surrender to him, for such is the nature of love, where the winner serves the
vanqishedvanquished.
However, Semiramis still regretted having driven away Ara from his people and from all that was familiar to him. So, she
considered that perhaps the construction of this garden could bring
hapinesshappiness
to the prince.
So, the queen resolved to accept the will of her husband. Furthermore, as Liliam was sent by the gods, her inclination
towards flowers was also the gods' will, a will that even a powerful queen like Semiramis had to bow down to. The matriarch thus
produced a royal decree captivating the budget for new conquests and warfare at the Euphrates River and diverted that investment to
the construction of the garden.
Over the coming years, young Liliam built the most beautiful garden of all times, a hanging garden so
sumptuossumptuous
that it would become one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
"I ask my queen to congratulate our daughter on her hard work. Dear Liliam put a lot of effort in the construction of this
architeturalarchitectural
jewel", mentioned Ara the Beautiful when the garden was inaugurated.
"Flowers, flowers and more flowers!" grumbled Semiramis. "No one rules a kingdom with flowers husband!"
"But this garden is a most excellent addition to your palace."
"What do I want a bigger palace for? To spend more on cleaning staff I suppose?"
"That's a small price to pay for being the most civilized among all nations and this garden is living evidence of such a
statmentstatement.
All rulers do war and conquest, but only the most powerful of them could have a garden like this one. You will be envied, my beloved Semiramis, and your name will cross millennia, persisting forever."
"Gracious words, Prince Ara! Once again you convince me", and Semiramis stroke Liliam's green hair, who embraced her mother
tenderly. "Still, my soul shudders at the expense. The water bill to maintain such a vast expanse of vegetation will be ruinous!"
Contrary to what the Queen expected, the hanging gardens turned out to be
proftableprofitable
due to the growing amount of tourists they attracted.
"We receive visitors from all over the world!", announced Semiramis. "Who would imagine that these
foreinnersforeigners
would willingly give their money away to us, instead of being forced through military conquest! I wander, dear husband, if tourism
could be the business of the future. It certainly is a way of avoiding the war cripples that weighed so heavily on our
health system and social security."
"The gods reward you for making the right
desisiondecision,
divine Semiramis", agreed Ara.
"You and your idealisms always convince me husband! Truly, sometimes I doubt who really rules this kingdom. And
our Liliam is like you. Her body lives among the mortals, but her soul inhabits the realm of fantasy."
Empires come and go. Liliam,
imortalimmortal,
because of the gods' blood running through her veins, survived the fall of her house in ancient Babylon. During the Roman Empire she
stood out as the master gardener of the emperors. Liliam admired the organization and discipline of the empire but their taste for war
and the bloodshed of the gladiators at the arena made her heart heavy with sorrow.
Time went by and even the Roman Empire was brought down to its knees and crumbled away. The Middle Ages arrived,
drowning the world in obscurantism. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were considered too beautiful, so beautiful that they could only
be the work of the devil. Persecuted, Liliam took
reffugerefuge
in the forest and turned her back to that sad populace.
Worried, she watched the massacre of the cats, accused of being the demon's creatures. Nothing good could come from an
afrontaffront
to animals who exhibited a spark of the gods in their elegant demeanor.
Liliam was not mistaken. Rats, without the control of the cats, become an uncontrollable pest spreading the deadly black plague.
Desolate, Liliam witnessed the death of entire villages.
The end of the Middle Ages brought new opportunities for Liliam. She was invited to Louis's XIV court and
colllaboratedcollaborated
in the construction of the Gardens of Versailles. Latter, she became friends with Vigée Le Brun, the portraitist
of Queen Marie Antoinette. Her Majesty had then both in high regard and even went so far as helping Le Brun store
her paintbrushes and helping Liliam choose which seeds to plant in the royal gardens.
However, not much time passed until Liliam was again a victim of persecution. The fall of Marie Antoinette from power,
and her posterior execution at the guillotine, resulted in the purge of all who were close to the disgraced sovereign.
Fearing for their safety, Liliam and Madame Lebrun both escaped Paris under the cover of the night and
sougthsought
refuge in other less turbulent courts. Even though her status as a refugee, Vigée Le Brun never lost her pride and, when
in Rome, refused portraying the Pope because he demanded she covered her hair. Liliam
aplaudedapplauded
this brave gesture for a woman's hair is divine and never a reason to be ashamed of. Countless clients solicited the
reputed work of Liliam and Le Brun and both amassed a fortune.
Vigée Le Brun spent her last days in the country house she
bougthbought
with the fruits of her labor. Liliam survived her friend, as she has survived until now, always in search of a place that
may welcome her exquisite gardens.
Nowadays, Liliam
joinnedjoined
the Lisbon School of Magic so that
sorserysorcery
will help preserve her work, a work that has so many times been destroyed. Together with the wizards at the school she will build a new garden
that will surpass all the previous ones. Come back soon to participate in the construction of this flower monument.
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