Striding lion

Excavated in 1899 at Babylon by a German expedition under the direction of Robert Koldewey, this panel was one of the 120 similar reliefs that included lions, bulls and dragons. The relief symbolizes life and death, and once decorated the walls along the processional way leading from the Ishtar Gate to the great temple of Marduk, suggested to be the famed "Tower of Babel." A reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate is now in Berlin.