The Ishtar Gate comes alive

We've been working through the ancient civilizations this summer. We'll continue that time period through January. I'll be posting soon about our whole plan for the year.

Meanwhile, J discovered that ancient Babylon had something called the "Ishtar Gate." In the picture below it is in blue. The rest of the gates form a double wall around the city. In the top left you can see one of the ancient wonders of the world--The Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

If you click on the picture, you will notice that each of the towers appears to have three "eyes." Well, that's how J saw it anyway. This piqued his interest and inspired an entire cartoon of six panels. Each panel is labeled with the word "Part" and a cuneiform (earliest writing system) symbol for the number. Each panel has its accompanying storyline as J gave it. Click on each drawing and it will enlarge so you can see the writing. Enjoy.

(By the way, the circle speech bubble is in "Babylon language" and the square speech bubble is the interpretation.)

Part 1:

One day, the talking Ishtar Gates of Babylon were all having a good time. All, that is, except one. His name was Thomas. His best friend, Eddie, was also one of the shorter gates. He was always there when Thomas needed his help, especially when Thomas was in a bad mood. Eddie said to Thomas, "Thomas, Don’t be sad." He decided to take him for a beautiful walk.

Part 2:

As they were walking, the saw a lush forest, rolling meadows, tall trees, majestic mountains, and a lot of other things they had never seen before. "Come on! This is pretty," Eddie said. Thomas just smiled a fake smile, but he was still in a very bad mood.

Part 3:

Then, Eddie showed Thomas a little chipmunk feeding a caterpillar another caterpillar which made him double-sized, Thomas’ frown slowly changed to a smile…

Part 4:

Suddenly, they both broke out laughing. As the chipmunk continued to feed the caterpillar ANOTHER caterpillar which made him one time bigger than double-sized which was so funny that Eddie almost got hiccups. (J always gets hiccups when he laughs a lot. As far as the caterpillar cannibal, I have no idea.)

Part 5:

Finally, now that Thomas was cheered up, both Thomas and Eddie had a good time talking about funny things on their way home. It was so exciting.

Part 6:

When the got home, they told Widget and Mack about what they saw. Widget and Mack didn’t believe a word of it. Now it’s Mack and Widget’s turn to do the same story. I do believe that might be even funnier. Don’t you?

Sorry about the caterpillar scenario. Things were quite rough back in ancient times.