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The great world religions can all trace their roots to the religious system of Babylon. We find its most perfect modern counterpart in Roman Catholicism. Many of the images in this album are featured in Amazing Discoveries' Total Onslaught: The Wine of Babylon lecture. Purchase The Wine of Babylon DVD or view the lecture online.

The Medallion of Cybele, excavated from Ai Khanum, Afganistan. Alexander the Great created this to remind him of his aspiration to "rule like the sun." Notice the star being born out of the moon.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 94.

Aruna drives the five-horse-drawn chariot of the sun god Sûrya in this eighteenth-century Pahari miniature from the Bharat Kala Museum, Varanasi, India.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 43.

Morning sun worshipers with open hands in the River Ganges.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 135.

A father and son worshiping the sun in a pool known as the "River Chandrabhaga" near the thirteenth-century sun temple at Konarak.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 177.

Sûrya-namaskar, or "salute to the sun," at the tenth-century Mukteshwar temple, Bhuvaneshwar, India.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 176.

Sûrya worship at the tenth-century Lingaraja temple, Bhuvaneshwar, India.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 186.

Sûrya-namaskar on the banks of the River Ganges in India, offered with hands raised and palms facing the sun.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 189.

Sûrya enclosed in the symbol of the sun, carrying a sword to kill evil demons. India, eighteenth-century.

Source: Katherine Komaroff, Sky Gods: The Sun and Moon in Art and Myth (New York: Universe Books, 1974): 7.

People of Peru used this beaten gold calendar between 800 BC and 200 AD. Around the edges are gods associated with the sun.

Source: Katherine Komaroff, Sky Gods: The Sun and Moon in Art and Myth (New York: Universe Books, 1974): 70.

Solar symbols on a first-century Chinese bronze drum.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 128.

The prophet Mani is painted in Cave Temple 285 at Dunhuang, China, together with Fuxi and Nu-wa, the sun and moon deities.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 163.

First-century sun god wearing boots and a wig. Taxila, Pakistan.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 170.

Twelfth-century Sûrya with solar family, Bengal.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 172.

Mesopotamian bas-relief showing a Babylonian king before the sun god Shamash. Twentieth or nineteenth century BC.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 231.

Fifth-century terracotta figure with sun and moon depicted on its head. Historical Museum, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 245.

Black basanite disc with a bust of the god Helios-Serapis. Late second-century. British Museum, London.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 293.

Eighteen-century mask of the sun, carried in processions during the festival of the Immaculate Conception in France.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 311.

Sun mask from British Columbia, Canada.

Source: Katherine Komaroff, Sky Gods: The Sun and Moon in Art and Myth (New York: Universe Books, 1974): 2.

Jade pectoral worn by Shield Jaguar. Jade was often used in representations of the sun god. Seventh or eighth century, Muzeo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico City.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 361.

Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of the sun, light, and learning is depicted as a plumed serpent in this sculpture.

Source: Katherine Komaroff, Sky Gods: The Sun and Moon in Art and Myth (New York: Universe Books, 1974): 52.

To the people of Dahomey (now Benin), the sun and moon were twin brother and sister, living happily as father and mother of all the stars and planets.

Source: Katherine Komaroff, Sky Gods: The Sun and Moon in Art and Myth (New York: Universe Books, 1974): 64.

The twelfth-century Basilica of San Clemente in Rome is embellished with sun motifs, as originally it was a second-century Mithra shrine.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 119.

A tower to be lit on fire during the festival of St. Jean at Urbes, France.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 317.

A tower lit on fire during the festival of St. Jean at Urbes, France.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 317.

In Finland and other places in Europe, it was common practice to jump through a fire to "energize" the sun during changes in season. A Christian message is now often associated with the ritual.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 294.

The open hand, as seen on the handle of this African Kuba-Bushong drum, is a universal solar symbol. Museum of Mankind, London.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 55.

A mosaic showing Irish monks raising their hands in the ancient Egyptian manner of paying homage to the sun. Cave chapel of St. Columbanus, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 116.

France. Summer solstice festival.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 310.

The pair of Mateo-iwa rocks at the Futamigaura seashore in Japan represents the divine couple. The rock left is the mother, the small rock on the right is the son, and the largest rock is the father.

The Gateway of Heavenly Deities on top of the larger rock is the universal sun door of life and death. Pagan religions teach a trinity of father-mother-son. Sun doors feature prominently in pagan religions as well.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993).

An engraving of people jumping over the fire in a summer solstice ritual. This has now become the festival of St. Jean.

Source: Madanjeet Singh, The Sun in Myth and Art (London: UNESCO, 1993): 313.

The Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu emerges out of the cave with her face painted white in a Shinto ritual dance.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

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