𒀭 The Babylonian Sky

Science Centre Observatory, Jurong · the constellations of MUL.APIN & the Three Paths

On the plains of Mesopotamia, more than three thousand years ago, the scribes of Babylon wrote the first great star catalogue — a clay tablet called MUL.APIN, "the Plough", after its opening constellation. Much of the sky we still use was born here.

They pictured the heavens as an imperial land crossed by three great roads, the Three Paths of the gods: the Path of Enlil in the north, the Path of Anu along the equator — the road of the Sun, Moon and planets — and the Path of Ea in the south. Every constellation belonged to one path, sorted by how far north or south it lay.

The first zodiac. By the 5th century BCE, Babylonian astronomers had divided the Sun's road into twelve equal signs of 30° — the Ram, the Bull, the Great Twins, the Crab, the Lion… This is the direct ancestor of the zodiac the whole world uses today.

🐉🪷⛵ The mother sky. The Greeks inherited these figures, and through them so did we — the Bull, the Lion, the Scorpion, the Great Twins are all Babylonian. Each figure below also shows its matching Chinese mansion and Indian nakshatra, so you can see four traditions on the same stars.

The Three Paths of the Gods — Enlil · Anu · Ea

The sky sorted into three roads by declination: Enlil the far north, Anu the equatorial road of Sun & Moon, Ea the deep south. Tap a path to light up its figures on the map and table.

The sky map — the MUL.APIN constellations

Strip map

Circle chart

← swipe the strip sideways →

Constellation ↔ Western sky — 18

Path	MUL.APIN name	Western	Stars

Every star of a constellation

Pick a figure to see it drawn over the real stars — with its story and the Chinese mansion & Indian nakshatra it shares.

The 12 signs — Babylon's zodiac — the first zodiac

The twelve 30° signs of the Sun's road, invented here and inherited by the whole world. Tap one to read it.

♈ Our zodiac's birthplace. The Hired Man became Aries, the Great Twins Gemini, the Scales Libra. The Greeks translated these Babylonian signs, and they have named the months of the sky ever since.

𒀭 Which figures are up tonight? 🐉 Chinese Sky 🪷 Indian Sky

Figures and their stars follow the constellations of MUL.APIN (c. 1000 BCE; the standard edition of Hunger & Pingree) and their generally accepted modern identifications, drawn from their brighter member stars to about magnitude 4 at Hipparcos J2000 positions. Names are given in Sumerian/Akkadian transliteration (the scholarly convention). Each figure is placed in its Path by the declination band MUL.APIN defines — Enlil north of +17°, Anu within ±17°, Ea south of −17° — a few boundary figures sit differently in different copies of the text. The 12 zodiac signs follow the Babylonian originals. Shared-star links use the same coordinates as The Chinese Sky and The Indian Sky. Live view: The Babylonian Sky Tonight.

ℹ️ About & credits