The Code of Hammurabi

Almost 4,000 years ago, a king named Hammurabi ruled the city of Babylon in Mesopotamia. He created one of the first written sets of laws in history. These laws were carved into a tall stone pillar for everyone to see. The Code of Hammurabi had 282 rules about how people should behave. It helped keep order in the kingdom and showed that laws should be fair and public.

What the Laws Said

The Code of Hammurabi covered many parts of daily life. There were rules about trading, property, and families. Some laws protected workers and set fair wages. Others said what should happen if someone stole or caused harm. The laws were carved in a language called cuneiform on a big stone pillar. At the top of the stone, there is a picture of Hammurabi receiving the laws from a god.

Why It Matters Today

The Code of Hammurabi is important because it showed that laws should be written down for everyone to know. Before this, rules were often just spoken and could change easily. Written laws helped make things fairer. Many ideas in the code are similar to laws we have today. The stone pillar was found in 1901 and is now in a museum in Paris, France.

Fun Facts

• The stone pillar with the Code of Hammurabi is over seven feet tall!
• One law said that if a builder made a house that fell down, the builder had to fix it.
• Hammurabi ruled Babylon for about 42 years.

Did You Know?

The Code of Hammurabi is not the very oldest set of laws ever found. An even older set, the Code of Ur-Nammu, was written about 300 years before it!