Who was Hammurabi?

He was the king of Babylon during the late third or second millennia(1792-1750 BCE); he was the sixth king of the Amorites.

1. a member of semi-nomadic people living in Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Syria in the 3rd millennium BC, founders of Mari on the Euphrates and the first dynasty of Babylon.

 He was the son of Sin-Muballit the fifth king of Bablyon and was said to succeeded the throne at a young age. The country was only made up of 4 cities when Hammurabi came to the throne(Babylon, Kish,Sippar and Borsippa) but he united the entire region of Mesopotamia(Iraq) a few decades later after the start of his rule, and during this process, overthrew many rulers.

As the new king he focused on finishing the building projects his Father had been working on during his time of rule. King Hammurabi also organized his troops and administration. He promoted the agriculture of the cities under his rule, built temples, dug canals, maintained the infrastructures of the cities under his control and made Babylon a center for trade. Hammurabi was king who payed close attention to the needs of the people and because he was often building projects was given the title "builder of the land" (or bani matim).

For his citizens,  Hammurabi came up with a collection of 282 laws and standards that his citizens would live by, near the end of his death this was carved onto a four ton slab of diorite. Today those laws have come to be known today as the Code of Hammurabi.