King of Babylonia Hammurabi

Hammurabi was king of Babylon in the 18th century BCE and is remembered as one of the most important rulers of ancient Mesopotamia. During his reign, Babylon grew from a regional kingdom into a dominant power, as he brought much of southern and central Mesopotamia under his control.

He is most famous today for the Code of Hammurabi, a collection of laws carved on a stone stele. The code is often highlighted for its detailed rules on family life, trade, labor, property, and punishment, and it remains one of the best-known legal texts to survive from the ancient Near East.

Because the surviving evidence comes from inscriptions, monuments, and later historical study, Hammurabi can feel both familiar and distant: a practical ruler, a conqueror, and a symbol of royal justice. His name has endured for thousands of years as shorthand for the idea that law should be written down and publicly displayed.