In an older comment in this subreddit, user /u/mythoplokos states the following: "Dalley further backs up her argument by noting that Sennacherib conquered and destroyed Babylon to shambles during his rule, rendering the city completely deserted for some seven years; so, technically he was the ’king of Babylon’."
A great city completely abandoned for 7 years? Surely some people may have called it their home in this time? If so, what kind of people and what did they do to make a living?
I'm specifically interested in Babylon, but any other cities in Europe, North Africa or the Middle East that were 'deserted' temporarily or permanently at any point before, say, 1.000 AD, would be interesting too.
You might be interested in this old post of mine about Nineveh. This was once the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, but it was abandoned after its fall and violent sack in 612 BC. We hear nothing at all about the city until the chance passing of a Greek mercenary in 401 BC shows the city still abandoned.
The reason for the lasting death of the city was probably that it made no sense for people to live there once the place lost its function as an administrative centre. Without the demands of the royal court and its staff, army, and dependents, there was nothing to sustain and provide a livelihood for a large population. Without imperial investment, defences and infrastructure (especially for the supply of clean water) deteriorated, and the city became an unsafe place to live. Only the renewal of the city's political importance could have revived it - which, in the case of Nineveh, never happened.