---
date: 2020-07-06
id: fcbdb286-af0e-484f-8a2d-dd5b2e18ff5b
title: The Chaldeans
---

The Assyrians fell at last to one of their subject peoples, the
Chaldeans, who rebuilt Babylon and won a lustrous place in history for
their intellectual achievements in astronomy, medicine, and mathematics.
They used a base-12 system (as opposed to our base-10 system) and were
pioneers in the measurement and division of time, which is why the year
has twelve months, the hour has sixty minutes (five times twelve), and
the minute has sixty seconds. They were terrific urban planners and
architects—it was a Chaldean king who built those Hanging Gardens of
Babylon, which the ancients ranked among the seven wonders of the world.
