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Stately Knowledge: Tennessee

One page summary of basic facts.

Tennessee

A list of state symbols and emblems with dates of adoption.

Tennessee Blue Book

Source for a variety of information (including trivia) about Tennessee: includes history, government, state symbols, and registered charities.

Tennessee Trivia

Lists famous Tennesseans, with links and other state information.

The Tennessee Quarter

U.S. Mint website describes the design on the special 25-cent coin issued in 2002.

Occupation forces might have to pay compensation for damage to Babylon [it's in the Bible]
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March 17, 2005.




It was one of the seven wonders of the world, but ancient Babylon attracts more insurgents
than tourists these days, with the nearby modern city of Hillah achieving notoriety
as the scene of the recent bombing in which 127 people died.

Last month, relatives wailed and beat their chests as they read the lists of dead and injured
posted up on hospital walls.

Corpses were loaded into trucks by relatives to be taken away for burial, and pools of blood
congealed in the marketplace where a car bomb exploded on February 28.

“I wonder how a city like Babylon could have become a den of terror, when it used to be visited
by scientists and educated people from all over the world,”
said Fayyadh Weleed, 22, from the village of Jumjuma near the archeological site of Babylon.

Hillah is the heir to Babylon, with many of its buildings made out of bricks taken from the
great palace of Nebuchadnezzar.

The ancient city, famed for its immense, fortified walls and the magnificence of its buildings,
was at the centre of Mesopotamia, the land regarded as the cradle of Middle Eastern
and European civilisation.

But as it lay deserted for two millennia, many believed it was no more than a Biblical myth,
a metaphor for wealth and power until its extensive remains were discovered in the 19th century.

The lawlessness seen in Babil – or Babylon – province in recent days contrasts with the reign of
King Hammurabi, living in the 18th century BC, who introduced the world's first code of law.

By the time Nebuchadnezzar II ruled around 600 BC, the city had become "the glory of kingdoms".

It was he who is thought to have built the famous Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders
of the world, as a gift for his wife Amyitis.

But within half a century, Babylon was to lose much of its political power, after a two-year siege
and an invasion by the Persians.

In subsequent centuries, it was plundered and eventually became derelict.

The ruins cover about 30 square kilometres on the east bank of the river Euphrates,
about 90 kilometres south of Baghdad.

As well as devastating the lives of present-day Iraqis, the insurgent attacks are hampering
archaeological efforts at the site.

“It's close to Latifiyah and its Sunni majority, so Babylon has witnessed many sabotage operations,”
said Babil province governor Waleed Omran al-Janabi, referring to the Sunni-dominated area in the
north of the