The idiom 'the writing on the wall' comes from the fall of Babylon.

539 BC

In the Book of Daniel a hand writes 'mene, mene, tekel, upharsin' on the wall at Belshazzar's feast, and that very night the king is slain.

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The event

• Fall of Babylon to Cyrus539 BC · Babylon. The Persian army of Cyrus the Great took Babylon, ending the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Cyrus allowed deported peoples, including the Jews, to return home, a policy reflected in the Cyrus Cylinder.

6th century BC

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