The Processional Way led north from the Ishtar Gate towards the temple precinct, and was the route along which the statue of Marduk was carried during the spring Akitu festival. It was paved with massive limestone slabs set in bitumen, with walls of glazed brickwork showing 120 striding lions in white and yellow against a blue ground.
Most of the original lion reliefs are now scattered between the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, the Iraq Museum and a handful of other collections. On site, a short stretch of the paving is exposed and a fragment of the lion frieze remains, allowing you to walk a few metres of the same route that processions took in the 6th century BC.