Answer and Explanation: While Babylonia and Persia were both major imperial civilizations of the ancient Near East, they did have their differences. The most important distinction between the two is that the Persian Empire came after the Babylonian Empire.
Babylon, like Assyria, became a colony of Achaemenid Persia in 539 BCE.
Babylonia is the best documented region of the Persian Empire: thousands of cuneiform texts have been preserved, from the 7th to the 4th centuries BC, that allow for an informed evaluation of Persia's achievements within the long history of the region.
Fall of Babylon
The Neo-Babylonian Empire, like the earlier Babylonia, was short-lived. In 539 B.C., less than a century after its founding, the legendary Persian king Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon. The fall of Babylon was complete when the empire came under Persian control.
I also explained that the once-so-powerful nation of Babylon — the country which we now call Iraq — will one day rise to become the most wealthy and powerful nation in the world, according to Old and New Testament prophets and apostles.
Where is Babylon located? Built on the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia during the late third millennium, Babylon's ruins are located about 55 miles (88 km) south of Baghdad, Iraq, and is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Is Babylon inhabited today? No, but the site was once again open to tourists in 2009. However, after years of destruction, there is not much left of the historical ruins today.
The most important distinction between the two is that the Persian Empire came after the Babylonian Empire.
Persia is today the country of Iran. By the 5th century B.C.E., it was the largest empire the world had ever seen, surpassing the size of their Assyrian predecessors.
Answer and Explanation: The Babylonian Empire fell in 539 during the Battle of Opis. The walls of Babylon were not strong enough to keep out the Persians and the Babylonians eventually lost their city and therefore their empire.
Persia is mentioned by name in the Bible 29 times. Persia changed its name to Iran in March of 1935. Whenever you read about Persia in the Scriptures, you are reading about the land of modern-day Iran.
Ancient Iran, historically known as Persia, was the dominant nation of western Asia for over twelve centuries, with three successive native dynasties—the Achaemenid, the Parthian, and the Sasanian—controlling an empire of unprecedented size and complexity.
It may surprise you to learn that a "prince of Persia" is mentioned in the Bible. This one is for real. The reference comes in the Old Testament book of Daniel, chapter 10, verse 13. This prince is not a human being but an evil angel.
Nabonidus, also spelled Nabu-Naʾid (“Reverer of Nabu”), king of Babylonia from 556 until 539 bc, when Babylon fell to Cyrus, king of Persia.
In Achaemenid Persia, the ancient Babylonian arts of astronomy and mathematics were revitalized, and Babylonian scholars completed maps of constellations. The city became the administrative capital of the Persian Empire and remained prominent for over two centuries.
The Persian Empire began to decline under the reign of Darius's son, Xerxes. Xerxes depleted the royal treasury with an unsuccessful campaign to invade Greece and continued with irresponsible spending upon returning home. Persia was eventually conquered by Alexander the Great in 334 B.C.E.
For most of history, the tract of land now called Iran was known as Persia. It wasn't until 1935 that it adopted its present name.
In 1935 the Iranian government requested those countries which it had diplomatic relations with, to call Persia "Iran," which is the name of the country in Persian. The suggestion for the change is said to have come from the Iranian ambassador to Germany, who came under the influence of the Nazis.
The ancient Persians were an Indo-Iranian people who migrated to the Iranian plateau during the end of the second millennium B.C., possibly from the Caucasus or Central Asia. Originally a pastoral people who roamed the steppes with their livestock, they were ethnically related to the Bactrians, Medes and Parthians.
Answer and Explanation: The Babylonian Empire did not predate the birth of civilization in Egypt. Most historians and archeologists put Egyptian civilization beginning sometime around 3100 BCE, some 12 centuries before the rise of the Babylonian Empire.
The Tower of Babel stood at the very heart of the vibrant metropolis of Babylon in what is today Iraq.
(Akkadian) Babylonian and Assyrian
Assyrian and Babylonian are members of the Semitic language family, like Arabic and Hebrew. Because Babylonian and Assyrian are so similar – at least in writing – they are often regarded as varieties of a single language, today known as Akkadian.
Babylonians were polytheistic and worshiped a large pantheon of gods and goddesses. Some of the gods were state deities, like Marduk, the chief patron god of Babylon, who dwelled in a towering temple. Others were personal gods that families worshiped at humble home shrines.
Nimrod wanted to build cities and is credited with building the tower of Babel, the center of a city that would reach to the heavens. The goal of their leaders was to make a name for themselves that would be remembered forever.