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# Herodotus describes Babylon as a square city with sides of 120 stadia
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/gerodot-opisyvaet-vavilon-kak-chetyrekhugolnyi-gorod-so-storonoi-v-120-stadii/
- Published: 2025-02-18T08:30:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:31:05.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archaeology, Architecture, The East, Geography, Science

Herodotus describes Babylon as a square city with sides of 120 stadia. One stadium is about 175 metres, so the area of Babylon, according to Herodotus, was 441 square kilometres, the size of 4 modern Parises or half of New York. Quite an enormous city to have in the desert.

Modern researchers, however, give a figure of 4-10 square kilometres. As for the Tower of Babel, with its square base of 90 metres per side, its height was 91 metres.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_15346@18-02-2025_11-30-06.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_15347@18-02-2025_11-30-06.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_15348@18-02-2025_11-30-06.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_15349@18-02-2025_11-30-06.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_15350@18-02-2025_11-30-06.jpg)