As we’ve been going through our Ancient History lessons, I’ve been looking for opportunities to use Legos and Minecraft. They are both things my kids enjoy, so when we reached the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, I knew they needed to be built, and it would make a great LEGO history lesson. All in all, this was a brilliant history lesson that my kids loved, and I was able to do this in a couple of different ways (and Future Ticia 2025, who is updating, is going to add in a few more details to this post).
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I sent the kids upstairs to find as many plant Legos as we could track down, which, with a bit of hel,p they scavenged up quite a bit.
Then we grabbed my laptop and looked up as many pictures of the Hanging Gardens for inspiration as I could find. Princess was quite intrigued by the structures and all the flowers.
Resources for Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Let’s talk the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. This is a lesson in Mystery of History volume 1. I also talked about this with my kids when we went through and studied in high school.
Online Resources:
YouTube videos:
Hanging Gardens of Babylon with Legos
After a lot of discussion, we set to work building.
Their first construction was a lot like many of their other constructions. A giant walled fortress with a lot of soldiers. I rejected the stormtrooper-laden edifice and required them to go back and try that one again. This time, I reminded them of why it was built because the King’s wife missed the gardens she’d seen at home.
I also reminded them of what the samples we found looked like. And they got to work again. Eventually, with much reminding by me, we are not trying to create a giant battleground. Seriously, they were going to put in 50 or so stormtroopers. I may exaggerate slightly because I don’t think we really have 50 of them.
Eventually, we compromised, and they were allowed to have some in there as guards for the queen. But in the end, it was closer to what I was thinking. I had to practically tie my hands behind my back not to interfere with their greater “vision.”
Hanging Gardens of Babylon with Minecraft
After we’d put the Legos away and the kids were ready for the next phase, I challenged them to create a garden in Minecraft on a similar scale. They need to think through how they will get water to the plants and design a working system to water all of the plants.
They really enjoyed this and spent a couple of hours designing just the right building structures and a beautiful garden. They were quite proud of themselves with it.
Finally, we ended our lesson by making our own drawings of it and creating a version of the Ishtar Gate, which Babylon was famous for. They were quite intrigued to discover you could see it in a museum now, NOT the British Museum like so many others, and there’s now a complete replica of it built. I found the coolest paper replica you could buy, but it was 30 pounds, and would have to be mailed from Britain…… Not quite practical for a lesson that day.
Some other Hanging Gardens of Babylon lessons
- Archimedes Screw and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon– I wanted to do this, but didn’t have the supplies/patience for it
- Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Pulley System– A great “how to solve the problem” lesson as the kids figured out how to water the plants using simple machines. I love the combination of history and science
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