Intolerance Babylon set
The Intolerance Babylon set was a recreation of the Gates of Babylon used for the 1916 movie Intolerance, directed by D.W. Griffith. The set-piece gained notoriety after the completion of the motion picture for not being torn down until several years after the movie's release. The set stood at the intersection of Sunset Blvd. and Hollywood Blvd., where the Vista Theatre now stands.
History
After receiving harsh criticism in response to his 1915 movie The Birth of a Nation, director D.W. Griffith wanted his next film to be a form of retaliation against the critical claims, stating their points of view were a "kind of intolerance". He sought to tell stories of other characters who suffered worse than he did, involving a non-linear story spanning multiple eras. The earliest of these eras was the Babylonia segment, set in 539 BCE.The iconic set-piece was built for the film Intolerance, in particular, for the filming of the Babylon segment. The set was built to scale, standing at 300 feet tall and adorned with gigantic elephant statues. When the movie was filmed, more than 3,000 extras were used to film shots of the sprawling Babylonian empire.
To create the set, Griffith was inspired by other silent epic motion pictures contemporary to the film's release; most notably, the 1914 silent feature Cabiria served as a blueprint for what Griffith had in mind.
At the time of its making, Intolerance was the longest production of its time, having started production in 1914 and wrapping up two years later. The film was a modest box office success, managing to recoup its enormous budget, but was widely perceived as a commercial disappointment compared to the immense returns for The Birth of a Nation.