Formerly at eye level, these are now above the right wall, near paintings depicting what an aerial view of Babylon might have been.
These glazed lions were part of the Ishtar Gate. Babylon, at the time of the fall of the Southern Kingdom of Judaea, had about 200,000 inhabitants, joined by 10,000 Jewish captives. 2 Kings 24:10-16 tells about Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem – “At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, and his servants did besiege it. And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land. And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.“
The ten thousand captives would have joined the 200,000 people of Babylon in 600 BC.
Psalm 137:1, 8, 9 – “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion … O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.”
Daniel and his three friends would have been marched as captives through the impressive Ishtar Gates.
Daniel 1:1, 3, 6 – “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it … And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes … Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah …”