During the Neo-Babylonian Revival, the city of Babylon was surrounded by a new system of thick defensive walls pierced at eight points by city gates "dedicated to the principal Babylonian deities; the most famous entrance, the tall Ishtar Gate, was on the heavily trafficked northern side of the city."

— Deborah Fritz from Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman. Architecture: from Prehistory to Post-Modernism. p71.

"The Ishtar Gate is the most impressive remnant of the city; it has been reconstructed out of its original materials and preserved in the State Museum, Berlin. In contrast to the ferocity of Assyrian art, here numerous tiers of elegant bulls and Babylonian dragons composed in the low relief of glazed polychrome bricks float against a light blue background. Even the abstract details—friezes, moldings, battlements, the arch—achieve admirable refinement."

— Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman. Architecture: from Prehistory to Post-Modernism. p71.