The earliest mention of the city of Babylon can be found in a clay tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC), dating back to the 23rd century BC. The earlier Akkadian and Sumerian traditions played a major role in Babylonian and Assyrian culture, and the region would remain an important cultural center, even under its protracted periods of outside rule. It retained the Sumerian language for religious use (as did Assyria), but already by the time Babylon was founded, this was no longer a spoken language, having been wholly subsumed by Akkadian. Like Assyria, the Babylonian state retained the written Akkadian language (the language of its native populace) for official use, despite its Northwest Semitic-speaking Amorite founders and Kassite successors, who spoke a language isolate, not being native Mesopotamians. The Babylonian Empire rapidly fell apart after the death of Hammurabi and reverted to a small kingdom. 1696–1654 BC, short chronology) created a short-lived empire, succeeding the earlier Akkadian Empire, Third Dynasty of Ur, and Old Assyrian Empire.

Babylonia briefly became the major power in the region after Hammurabi ( fl. It was often involved in rivalry with the older state of Assyria to the north and Elam to the east in Ancient Iran. During the reign of Hammurabi and afterwards, Babylonia was called 'the country of Akkad' ( Māt Akkadī in Akkadian), a deliberate archaism in reference to the previous glory of the Akkadian Empire. It was merely a small provincial town during the Akkadian Empire (2335–2154 BC) but greatly expanded during the reign of Hammurabi in the first half of the 18th century BC and became a major capital city. A small Amorite-ruled state emerged in 1894 BC, which contained the minor administrative town of Babylon. Babylonia ( / ˌ b æ b ɪ ˈ l oʊ n i ə/) was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and Syria).

Where was babylon located