Babylon Garden


 * For the track in Sonic Riders, see Babylon Garden (track).

Babylon Garden (バビロンガーデン) is a location in the Sonic the Hedgehog series that first appeared in Sonic Riders. Originally a spaceship used by the ancient Babylonians, Babylon Garden became the ancestral home of the Babylon Rogues' ancestors after the Babylonians got marooned on earth. However, its inhabitants lost the entire island when it got buried by the Gods as punishment for their crimes.

Babylon Garden was rediscovered generations later by the latest generation of Babylon Rogues, and their subsequent adventures brought it back to its original incarnation and into space.

Architecture
The substructure of Babylon Garden consists of the Babylonians' interstellar spaceship, Astral Babylon, which has a beautiful, yet alien design. It has an elegant fundament resembling a spinning top's bottom, with pillars supporting an upper flat layer, and in the center lies a purple core enveloped by an intertwining structure. Surrounding the upper section are smaller towers with purple bottoms, which are connected by small bridges. As a result of having Astral Babylon in its center, Babylon Garden's innermost sanctums are highly technological.

As it was reconstructed from a spaceship into a city, Babylon Garden would come to resemble more of an island. The entirety of Astral Babylon was obscured by a stalactite-like rock fundament, though it would have some cracks that revealed an artificial shell underneath it. On the top lay a lavishly decorated city of mosaic plazas, Byzantine domes and buildings, and winding roads, the latter of which were undoubtedly meant for Extreme Gear traffic. Surrounding Babylon Garden was a fractured ring of tall arch bridges, which was connected to Babylon Garden by bridges at each of its cardinal points. On each of these points on the ring were also a smaller-scaled version of Babylon Garden's central area. Additionally, lawns, trimmed hedges, trees, and giant hanging plants at the edges grew all over the island.

When the five Arks of the Cosmos were brought back to Babylon Garden, the island's superstructure was stripped down to its original incarnation.

Defenses and workings
Though ancient, Babylon Garden possesses a couple of technological defenses against unwanted intruders, all of which have remained functional even after being buried for ages. Silver-and-cyan fighter drones patrol the skies, which will drop bombs on any unfortunate targets, and the most secure area on the island is safeguarded by the Babylon Guardian, the guardian God of Babylon.

Babylon Garden can be operated with the Key to Babylon Garden. Acting as a universal control for the island, this key can open the islands' entrances and even summon it for the wielder (provided it is powered by the seven Chaos Emeralds). Additionally, the resonance from all five Arks of the Cosmos can call Babylon Garden to their location.

Points of interest

 * Astral Babylon
 * Babylon Garden
 * Babylon Guardian
 * Mobius Strip
 * Sky Road

Ancient past
The exact origins of Babylon Garden is unknown and shrouded in legends. Originally a spaceship, Babylon Garden was used by the ancient Babylonians for their interstellar travels. The vessel's warp drive was powered by the Ark of the Cosmos, devices capable of harnessing the power of gravity. When the ship arrived at earth in the ancient past, however, Babylon Garden experienced some form of malfunction as a result of the Babylonians' inability to control the Arks of the Cosmos, and the ship's engine was threatening to create a black hole‑a "lightless black"‑that would consume everything. The Arks of the Cosmos were thus jettisoned into earth's orbit by the Babylonians to prevent this catastrophe, while Babylon Garden crash landed on earth.

With the Babylonians marooned and crippled, the now-inoperable Babylon Garden was turned into a floating home for the Babylonians on earth, who constructed an island-like shell with a city on top around the spaceship. The Babylonians thus waited for the Arks of the Cosmos to resurface, so they could relaunch Babylon Garden safely and go back home. During ancient times, Babylon Garden would also become known as the "divine wings" (神の翼)‑a legendary bird that the gods rode through the heavens. When the Magic Carpet, the very first form of Extreme Gear, was created by the Babylonians, it was placed inside Babylon Garden to be protected by the Babylon Guardian. This would become known as Treasure of Babylon, which vague legends would describe as an invaluable treasure left behind in Babylon Garden by its creators.

According to legend, the Babylonians, who had become a society of thieves, at some point incurred the wrath of the Gods because of their crimes. As punishment, Babylon Garden was "cast into the depths of the earth," leaving it buried deep beneath the sand dunes in Sand Ruins. Though the stories of the treasure within Babylon Garden endured the test of time, the scattered Babylonians' descendants would forget the identity of the treasure and would come to regard Babylon Garden as nothing more than a fable.

Sonic Riders
In Sonic Riders, Babylon Garden was rediscovered by the current generation of Babylon Rogues (under Dr. Eggman's machinations), who sought what they believed was a valuable treasure here. Using the Key to Babylon Garden, an relic from the ancient Babylonians, and the seven Chaos Emeralds, Jet hoisted Babylon Garden back up from the underground. Eggman then stole the key and went to Babylon Garden to steal its treasure, convinced it was technology he could harness to conquer the world, with Team Sonic and the Babylon Rogues in hot pursuit. At Babylon Garden, Sonic and Jet raced each other to Eggman, while their teams tried to escape Eggman's E-10000 robots.

Having beaten Jet, Sonic disposed of Eggman as he tried to enter Babylon Garden, despite the doctor using Amy as a shield, while taking back the key as the teams reunited. While Jet refused out to take back the key, being too proud to accept it, Wave took it on his behalf. As Team Sonic dealt with an incensed Amy, the Babylon Rogues entered Babylon Garden's void-like center, where they faced the Babylon Guardian for Babylon Garden's treasure. Team Sonic and Amy speed in to help out in the last minute, and the teams defeated the guardian God together, making it release the chest containing the Magic Carpet upon vanishing. As they discovered the carpet, Eggman returned to demand the treasure with blasters. While the group obliged, Eggman fainted from shock over wasting so much time on a piece of cloth. Needless, the others were fascinated at this early form of Extreme Gear. Though intrigued about their ancestry, the Babylon Rogues left Babylon Garden to itself to continue searching for treasure.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Babylon Garden was called to Crimson Tower by the five Arks of the Cosmos when Team Sonic and the Babylon Rogues brought them together. However, SCR-HD, possessed by the Arks of the Cosmos' program to return them to their point of origin, stole the relics and brought them to Babylon Garden, causing the calamity the Babylonians tried to avoid: with the meteorites resonating together, Babylon Garden's engine overloaded, causing the island's shell to fall apart as a giant black hole was formed that tore the landscape to pieces and would eventually swallow the entire planet.

To stop Babylon Garden, Team Sonic and the Babylon Rogues headed into its engine room to disconnect its core unit. There, they faced Master Core: ABIS, a mutated form of SCR-HD, and destroyed it, causing Babylon Garden's black hole to subside. With its engine seemingly brought under control, Babylon Garden, in its original incarnation, went into orbit around earth. However, rather than fulfilling their ancestors' wish of going home in Babylon Garden, the Babylon Rogues opted to remain on earth.

Archie Comics
In the Archie Comics, Babylon Garden was a spaceship controlled by the Babylonians, but was forced to crash-land on Mobius a thousand years prior to the current story line. A malfunction inside Babylon Garden threatened to destroy Mobius with a black hole if the Babylonians tried to leave, so the Babylonians deactivated Babylon Garden and hid away underground so no one would find it and risk the destruction of the planet.

A thousand years later, the Battle Bird Armada and the Babylon Rogues managed to find Babylon Garden, which was located beneath New Mobotropolis, and succeeded in reactivating it and made it emerge into the sky. However, before the ship's autopilot could create a black hole when it tried to travel into space, it was stopped by Sonic the Hedgehog, and Babylon Garden itself crashed into the mountains near Mobotropolis.

Trivia

 * Even though it is called garden, Babylon Garden hardly has any plants of any kind.
 * Babylon Garden is similar to Angel Island.
 * Babylon Garden is based on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a real-life location that existed is Mesoptamia, which was situated in modern day Iraq.