The procession of Akitu (the way of the processions), part of the festival or celebration of the New Year, is the route where the procession left the city to reach the akitu temple and then returned to the city at the end of the festival.

After passing the southern palace, the Gods crossed the Ishtar Gate outside the city. With the arrival of the New Year, the statues of Ishtar and other deities paraded under the monumental gate on their way through this processional path, which integrated a corridor paved with brick along almost a kilometer in length and leading to the temple of Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon.

This road was paved with red and yellow stones that showed the inscriptions of a prayer of Nebuchadnezzar to Marduk.