King, queen, emperor, chief; rulers like to be the center of attention. And what’s a shortcut to making sure they have it? Visual splash. No matter what century or what country, showing status is a constant. Big buildings. Big cities. Big art.

Take the Ishtar Gate, one of eight entryways into the ancient capital of Babylon, built thousands of years ago during the reign of the powerful Nabu-kudurri-utsur (a.k.a. Nebuchadnezzar II). Nearly five stories tall, and designed to impress, the Ishtar Gate was part of the Processional Way, a ceremonial road leading into the walled city. Set among the landscape of what’s now Iraq, the gate would have been visually spectacular, covered in millions of vivid blue tiles and images of symbolic protective animals: bulls, lions, and a very special dragon called a mushhushshu.

This is a particularly fierce kind of dragon, and not just because its body is made up of four dangerous animals: it has a snake’s head and scales, an eagle’s talons, lion legs, and a tail that ends in a scorpion’s stinger. All that, and its name sounds like an angry hissing reptile (moosh-hoo-shoo). Mushhushshu translates to “furious serpent” and symbolizes the god Marduk, an important deity and protector of Babylon. The Ishtar Gate was covered in glazed bricks that formed images of this creature, as well as lions and bulls. If you hadn’t already gotten the message you were entering the imperial capital, you’d definitely know it by the time you walked through this dazzling gate, past not one but two massive walls, and onto the grand Processional Way.

What would your dragon look like?

Check out this work and a curator-led audio tour of Mushhushshu-dragon, Symbol of the God Marduk—then see it in person in the Ancient Middle East Gallery, Level 1, West Wing.