Nebuchadnezzar II 034

(i 1) Nebuchadnezzar (II), king of Babylon, the one who provides for Esagil and Ezida, son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, am I.

(i 4) I provided for Esagil, completed Ezida, (and) made the sanctuaries of the great god(s) shine like daylight.

(i 8) At the time, the broad streets of Babylon, whose interior(s) had become too low — (with regard to) Nabû-dayyān-nišīšu, the street of the Uraš Gate, and Ištar-lamassi-ummānīša, the street of the Ištar Gate, I filled (them) in with six cubits of infill for the procession(s) of the great lord, the god Marduk and the god Nabû, the triumphant heir, the son beloved by him, and beautified (their) accessway(s) using bitumen and baked brick.

(i 23) For a second time, (and) more than before, I filled (them) in with eighteen cubits of infill and improved (their) accessway(s) using bitumen and baked brick.

(ii 1) For a third time, I filled in Ištar-lamassi-ummānīša with a large seventeen-cubit infill.

(ii 5) (In total) I filled Ištar-lamassi-ummānīša with a high forty-one-cubit infill and broadened (its) accessway.

(ii 8) O Marduk, exalted lord, wisest of the gods, competent one, look upon my handiwork with favor and pleasure and grant me a long life (and) the attainment of very old age.

(ii 17) O great gods who go in procession on the way to the akītu(-house) on Ay-ibūr-šabû with the god Marduk, king of heaven and earth, say good thing(s) about me in the presence of the god Marduk, the great lord.