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BAGHDAD - Iraq's U.S.-led invaders inflicted serious damage on Babylon, driving heavy machinery over sacred paths, bulldozing hilltops and digging trenches through one of the world's greatest archaeological sites, said experts for UNESCO.
"The use of Babylon as a military base was a grave encroachment on this internationally known archaeological site," said a report which the U.N. cultural agency presented Thursday in Paris.
UNESCO aims to make the 4,000-year-old city fit for the coveted title of World Heritage site, and will work to enforce international conventions on the protection of historic sites "so that what happened to Babylon can't ever happen again," said Francoise Riviere, the agency's undersecretary general for culture.
The UNESCO report did not single out any nationalities of forces on the base, except to mention "contractors employed by them, mainly KBR," an American company that was then a Halliburton subsidiary.
The report said troops and KBR contractors "caused major damage to the city by digging, cutting, scraping, and leveling."
KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne said the company would not comment before seeing the report, but added: "Our commitment to provide the military with high-quality service, and conduct our operations in Iraq in that regard, remains."
The report said steel stakes were driven into ancient walls, which included fragments with inscriptions from the time of King Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled 2 1/2 millennia ago and is credited with building the Hanging Gardens of Babylon ? one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
A helicopter pad, roads and parking lots were built, and heavy vehicles devastated ancient brick roads, the report said. The symbolic dragon-snakes adorning many of the structures have been partly smashed.
Today there's no trace of the legendary Hanging Gardens. But no large-scale exploration has been done at Babylon in nearly a century, and according to the UNESCO report, archaeologists believe "much remains buried beneath the earth and there is still a great deal to discover."
"The use of Babylon as a military base was a grave encroachment on this internationally known archaeological site," said a report which the U.N. cultural agency presented Thursday in Paris.
UNESCO aims to make the 4,000-year-old city fit for the coveted title of World Heritage site, and will work to enforce international conventions on the protection of historic sites "so that what happened to Babylon can't ever happen again," said Francoise Riviere, the agency's undersecretary general for culture.
The UNESCO report did not single out any nationalities of forces on the base, except to mention "contractors employed by them, mainly KBR," an American company that was then a Halliburton subsidiary.
The report said troops and KBR contractors "caused major damage to the city by digging, cutting, scraping, and leveling."
KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne said the company would not comment before seeing the report, but added: "Our commitment to provide the military with high-quality service, and conduct our operations in Iraq in that regard, remains."
The report said steel stakes were driven into ancient walls, which included fragments with inscriptions from the time of King Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled 2 1/2 millennia ago and is credited with building the Hanging Gardens of Babylon ? one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
A helicopter pad, roads and parking lots were built, and heavy vehicles devastated ancient brick roads, the report said. The symbolic dragon-snakes adorning many of the structures have been partly smashed.
Today there's no trace of the legendary Hanging Gardens. But no large-scale exploration has been done at Babylon in nearly a century, and according to the UNESCO report, archaeologists believe "much remains buried beneath the earth and there is still a great deal to discover."
