The Ishtar Gate (Arabic: بوابة عشتار‎) was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon[citation needed] (in the area of present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq). It was constructed in about 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was part of a grand walled processional way leading into the city. The walls were finished in glazed bricks mostly in blue, with animals and deities in low relief at intervals, these also made up of bricks that are molded and colored differently.

The German archaeologist Robert Koldewey led the excavation of the site from 1904 to 1914. Wanting to justify the large investment that had been provided by the German Oriental Society, another archeologist involved in the excavation, Walter Andrae, used his connections with both the German intelligence and with local Iraqi tribal sheikhs to smuggle the remains out of Iraq under the nose of the Ottoman authorities. The gate's ceramic pieces were disassembled according to a numbering system and then packed in straw in coal barrels to disguise them.[1] These barrels were then transported down the Euphrates River to Shatt al-Arab, where they were loaded onto German ships and taken to Berlin.