During the 1980s, a pseudo-historical restoration of Nebuchadnezzar's palace was completed on Mr Hussein's orders.

ECONOMIST: Monumental

He casts himself as a latter-day Nebuchadnezzar, a reincarnation of Alexander the Great.

ECONOMIST: Monumental

William Blake mocked the British monarchy with his illustration of Nebuchadnezzar eating grass from a story in the Book of Daniel.

ECONOMIST: Babylon

When U.S. forces arrived in 2003, they occupied the palace, which lies adjacent to Nebuchadnezzar's palace and overlooks the Euphrates River, and left their own mark.

CNN: Bringing Babylon back from the dead

Its exhibit will show how Saddam Hussein exploited the symbolism of Babylon by ordering the reconstruction of the King's Palace with bricks stamped with his name, just as Nebuchadnezzar stamped the originals.

ECONOMIST: Babylon

Here was corroboration of one of the best-known stories in the Hebrew Bible, the liberation by Cyrus of the Jews deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar and their return to Jerusalem to build the Second Temple.

CNN: A 2,600-year-old icon of freedom comes to the United States

Iraqi archaeologist Hai Katth Moussa said that during a massive reconstruction project in the early 1980s, Saddam began building a replica of the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II on top of the ruins of the ancient palace.

CNN: Bringing Babylon back from the dead

For instance, a tablet from the museum, translated so recently that it only just made the show, names Sarsachim, a Babylonian eunuch who is also listed in the Book of Jeremiah as one of Nebuchadnezzar's henchmen at the siege of Jerusalem.

ECONOMIST: Babylon

Following excavations in the early 20th century, European archaeologists claimed key features such as the remains of the famous Ishtar Gate -- the glazed brick gate decorated with images of dragons and aurochs, built in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II as the eighth gate to the inner city.

CNN: Bringing Babylon back from the dead