(Credit: Daniel O'Connell, Gunnery Sergeant, USMC)

Somehow I missed this back in February… yes, of this year. I know the U.S. is building their fancy $700,000,000 embassy in Iraq (the beast’s future kingdom near the “glorious land?”), but I was totally unaware that the ancient ruins of Babylon — King Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom where the prophet Daniel and his companions were taken into captivity — are being actively rebuilt today… with U.S. money no less (and the U.N., too of course).

Babylon’s future written in its ruins
Tue Feb 10, 2009 8:47pm EST

By Khalid al-Ansary

BABYLON, Iraq (Reuters) – For a site whose historical importance ranks with Egypt’s Pyramids, the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon has suffered some rough treatment.

In recent times, U.S. troops and allied armies have parked tanks and weapons on the site in southern Iraq and used earth containing ancient fragments to fill their sandbags.

Looters ransacked its treasures, and before that Saddam Hussein “restored” parts of it using new bricks bearing his name and built a kitsch palace overlooking it.

Now officials hope Babylon can be revived and made ready for a rich future of tourism, with help from experts at the World Monuments Fund (WMF) and the U.S. embassy.

… The ruins of the once mighty city are a far cry from the Babylon of popular imagination, with its magnificent golden gate and lush gardens cultivated by King Nebuchadnezzar for his wife.

… Officials say preserving Babylon, a relic of a time and place that gave birth to such milestones of civilization as agriculture, writing, codified law and the wheel, is crucial.

“It’s extremely important. When people say this (region) is the cradle of civilization, that’s certainly true of Babylon,” Lisa Ackerman, WMF vice-president, told Reuters in a telephone interview. “It’s a culture that had a profound impact on what we think of as modern civilization.”

… The U.S. embassy in Baghdad is contributing $700,000 toward the site’s restoration. (Source)

According to the World Monuments Fund’s Web site: This initiative has been supported by the United States Department of State, The J.M. Kaplan Fund, The National Endowment for the Humanities, UNESCO, and The Annenberg Foundation.

Why on earth would anyone want to rebuild Babylon… and why would the Obama administration be so interested in helping out?

For those of us who thought the Holy Bible was only referring to a “spiritual” Babylon in the end time, may have to think again. There very well may be a literal, physical Babylon to be destroyed.