WIDENER LIBRARY
HX GFFP Z


AH 3013,20,3

111
ET
CHRISTO
SED
7:
ECCLESLI
ON:
KAS
SAO
NHurds
BOSTON
ON
Wheel
L




















Ref. Sept.7.1831.





MEMOIR
ON THE
RUINS OF BABYLON.
BY
CLAUDIUS JAMES RICH, Esq.
RESIDENT FOR THE HONOURABLE EAST INDIA COMPANY
AT THE COURT OF THE PASHA OF BAGDAD,
WITH THREE PLATES.
THIRD EDITION,
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND
BROWN, PATERNOSTER ROW; AND J. MURRAY,
ALBEMARLE STREET.
1818,


A
re cele momen
AH 3013,
20,3
PRINTED BY RICHARD AND ARTHUR TAYLOR, SHOE LANE,


-
ADVERTISEMENT.
· The following Memoir was originally pub-
lished at Vienna, in a Journal entituled Mines
de l'Orient, conducted by Mr. Hammer a
learned Orientalist of that city, at whose re-
quest it was composed. It is now republished,
though without any instructions from the author,
and without the advantage of his correction, in
order partly to satisfy curiosity on an interest-
ing subject, but still more to solicit the coun-
sel of the learned in the prosecution of those
inquiries, Geographical and Antiquarian, for
which the situation of Bagdad furnishes pecu-
liarly favourable opportunities. This Memoir
is viewed by the Author as only the first fruits
of imperfect research. It may perhaps be


iv
considered with the more indulgence, as it is
believed that it is the only account of these
memorable ruins hitherto laid before the pub-
lic by a native of the British Islands.


MEMOIR
ON
THE RUINS OF BABYLON.
THE site of Babylon having never been either
thoroughly explored or accurately described, I beg
leave to offer to the associates of the Mines de l'Orient
an account of my observations on that celebrated
spot, the completion of which has been retarded by
frequent interruptions from indisposition and offi-
cial occupation.
I have frequently had occasion to remark the in-
adequacy of general descriptions to convey an ac-
curate idea of persons or places. I found this par-
ticularly exemplified in the present instance. From
the accounts of modern travellers, I had expected to
have found on the site of Babylon more, and less,


CO
.
than I actually did. Less, because I could have
formed no conception of the prodigious extent of
the whole ruins, or of the size, solidity, and perfect
state, of some of the parts of them; and more, be-
cause I thought that I should have distinguished
some traces, however imperfect, of many of the prin-
cipal structures of Babylon. I imagined I should
have said, “Here were the walls, and such must
have been the extent of the area. There stood the
Palace, and this most assuredly was the Tower of
Belus.”-I was completely deceived : instead of a
few insulated mounds, I found the whole face of
the country covered with vestiges of building, in
some places consisting of brick walls surprisingly
fresh, in others merely of a vast succession of mounds
of rubbish, of such indeterminate figures, variety,
and extent, as to involve the person who should have
formed any theory in inextricable confusion.—This,
together with the impossibility, in such a remote si-
tuation, of referring to all the authorities I should
have consulted, will cause my account of the remains
of Babylon to appear very meagre and unsatisfac-
tory. I announce no discovery, I advance no in-
teresting hypothesis ; I am sensible that to form any
thing like a correct judgement, much study and con-
sidération, and frequent visits to the same place, are
requisite. As probably more weight may be attached


An inquiry concerning the foundation of Baby-
lon, and the position of its remains, does not enter
into my present plan; the latter subject has been
already so ably treated by Major Rennel, in his
Geography of Herodotus (a work to which I have
often been under obligations, which I take this op-
portunity of acknowledging), that I shall consider
the site of Babylon as established in the environs of
Hilla, and commence my description with an ac-
count of the country about that place.
· The whole country between Bagdad and Hilla
is a perfectly flat and (with the exception of a few
spots as you approach the latter place) uncultivated
waste. That it was at some former period in a far
different state, is evident from the number of canals
by which it is traversed, now dry and neglected;
and the quantity of heaps of earth covered with frag:
ments of brick and broken tiles, which are seen in
every direction,--the indisputable traces of former
population. At present the only inhabitants of this
tract are the Zobeide Arabs, the Sheikh of which
tribe is responsible for the security of the road, which
is so much frequented that robberies are compa-
ratively seldom heard of. At convenient distances
khans or caravanserais are erected for the accom-
modation of travellers, and to each of them is at-
tached a small village of Fellahs. The first of these


is Kiahya Khan, so called from its founder Ahmed
the Kiahya or minister of Suleiman Pasha ; it is
about seven miles from Bagdad *, and it is rather a
handsome building; but from its vicinity to the
town it is now unfrequented. The general direc-
tion of the Hilla road is north and south.-Assad
Khan is the next stage, and is distant from Kiahya
Khan about five miles; and between four and five
miles to the southward of it the road is intersected
by the famous Naher Malcha, or fluvius regius, the
work, it is said, of Nebuchadnezzar; which is now
dry, like many others which I forbear mentioning as
being of no importance, though as late as the time
of the Caliphs it was applied to the purposes of
irrigation. It is confined between two very high
mounds, and on the northern one near the road is a
small ruin called Sheikh Shoubar, which is visible
from afar.
Before arriving at the Naher Malcha, and half
way between Assad Khan and the next stage, is
a small canal, over which is a bridge of one arch,
now ruinous. Some time ago, a large lion came
regularly every evening from the banks of the
* I have laid down the distance on the Hilla road by compu.
tation and not actual measurement, taking the ordinary walk of
a light caravan at three British miles the hour.


which it is built were dug up on the spot. The first
khạn on the Kerbela or rather Musseib road, called
Mizrakjee Oghlou, from the name of the Bagdad mer-
chant who founded it, is very near this on the same
line; and Musseib itself is visible in the direction of
S. 80 W. From Iskenderia to Khan Hajee Sulei-
man (a mean building erected by an Arab) is a di-
stance of upwards of eight miles; and at this khan
the road is traversed by a canal cut from the Eu-
phrates at the village of Naseriat (which bears N. 20
W. from the road), and full of water in the spring, as
are many of the canals between this and Hilla.
Four miles from Hajee Suleiman is Mohawil, also
a very indifferent khan, close to which is a large
canal with a bridge over it: beyond this every thing
announces an approach to the remains of a large city,
The ruins of Babylon may in fact be said almost to
commence from this spot, the whole country between
it and Hilla exhibiting at intervals traces of build-
ing, in which are discoverable burnt and unburnt
bricks and bitumen; three mounds in particular at-
tract attention from their magnitude. The ground
to the right and left of the road bears the appear-
ance of being partially and occasionally a morass,
though at the time we passed it it was perfectly
dry: the road, which is due south, lies within à
quarter of a mile of the celebrated mass called by


Pietro della Valle the Tower of Belus ; Hilla is
nine miles from Mohawil, and nearly forty-eight
from Bagdad.
Hilla is called by Abulfeda, Hellah Bene Mo-
zeid; he and the Turkish geographer who copies
him say it was built, or rather augmented, by Saif-
ed-doulah, in the year of the Hejira 495*, in the
land of Babel. The Turkish geographer appears to
place the ruins of Babylon considerably more to the
northward, in the direction of Sura and Felugiah.
The district called by the natives El-Aredh Babel
extends on both sides the Euphrates. Its latitude,
according to Niebuhr, is 32° 28', and it is situated
on the western bank of the Euphrates, a few shops
and huts only being on the eastern. It is meanly
built, and its population does not exceed between
6 and 7000, consisting of Arabs, and Jews (who
have one synagogue), there being no Christians,
بابل و
* قال ياقوت في مشترك هي حلة بني مزید بارض
هي بين بغداد و بين الكوفة قال وأول من احتط بها المنازل و
الدوله صدقة بن دبيس بن علي بن مزيد الاسدي
عظمها سيف
يسمي اللمين
في سنة 295 قال و كان موضمها قبل ذلك
ا حله بغداد ايله كوفه بيننده بوکا حله بنی مزید دیرلر
وبو حله به أول نزول ایدوب ومنازلي احتطاط ايلة بوني تعظيم
الدوله صدقه بن دبيس بن علي بن مزيد الاسدي
ایدن سیف
.Djihannuma
درکه دورتيوز بشده نزول ایتدي
Abulfeda. "


and only such Turks as are employed in the govern-
ment. It is divided into seven small mahalles or
parishes; but there is only one mosque in the town,
all the other places of worship being mere ibadetgahs
or oratories. The walls are of mud, and present a
truly contemptible appearance; but the present
Pasha of Bagdad has ordered a new wall to be con-
structed of the finest Babylonian bricks. The gates
are three in number, and, as usual in the East, each
takes the name of the principal place it leads to, the
northern one being called the gate of Hussein or
Kerbela, the centre that of Tahmasia (a large village
in the neighbourhood), and the southern the gate
of Nejef or Imam Ali. The little street on the east-
ern side is also closed by a gate, or rather door. The
gardens on both sides the river are very extensive,
so that the town itself from a little distance appears
embosomed in a wood of date-trees; on the outer
verge of the gardens on the west, small redans are
established, within sight and hearing of each other,
in each of which a matchlockman mounts guard at
night; and for greater security against the ma-
rauders of the Desert, the late Ali Pasha dug an
ample trench round the whole, and built a citadel,
(which, as usual in these countries, is nothing more
than a square inclosure,) in the town, on the bank of
the river,


10
Among the gardens a few hundred yards to the
west of the Husseinia gate, is the Mesjid-esshems, a
mosque built on the spot where popular tradition
says a miracle, similar to that of the prophet Joshua,
was wrought in favour of Ali, and from this the
mosque derives its appellation. It is a small build-
ing, having instead of a minaret an obelisk, or rather
hollow cone fretted on the outside like a pine-apple,
placed on an octagonal base: this form, which is a
very curious one, I have observed in several very old
structures, particularly the tomb of Zobeide, the wife
of Haroun-al-raschid, at Bagdad; and I am in-
formed it cannot now be imitated. On the top of
the cone is a mud cap, elevated on a pole, resembling
the cap of liberty. This, they say, revolves with the
sun; a miracle I had not the curiosity to verify. The
inside of the mosque is supported by rows of short
pillars about two feet in girth; from the top of each
spring pointed arches, in form and combination re-
sembling in a striking manner the Gothic architec-
ture. It contains nothing remarkable except what
the people show as the tomb of the prophet Joshua.
This country abounds in pretended tombs of pro-
phets. On the Tigris between Bagdad and Bussora
they show the sepulchre of Ezra; twelve miles in
the Desert to the south-west of Hilla is that of Eze-
chiel, and to the southward the tomb of Job: the two


former are places of pilgrimage of the Jews, who do
not acknowledge those of Job and Joshua.
• The district of Hilla extends from Husseinia
(which is a canal leading from the Euphrates near
Nusseib to Imam Hussein) on the north to the town
of Hasca on the south. It is governed by a Bey,
who is always a Turk or Georgian, appointed by the
Pasha of Bagdad, from whom the government is
farmed for a stipulated yearly sum* There is also
* For the information of those who may be curious regarding
such subjects, I subjoin a statement of the revenue of Hilla,
communicated to me by the Serraf Bashi of the place.
Annual Receipts of the Governor of Hilla.
From the farms and villages ................... 100,000
Duties on rice, corn, &c., grown in the vicinity and
passing through the town from the Khezail territory 100,000
Farm of sesame .....
...... 15,000
dyeing .....
15,000
- the butchery ....
6,000
silk ..........
4,000
tannery .......
1,000
- lime kilns..............
1,500
Collections or voluntary contributions levied on the
townspeople under various pretexts about three
times a year generally ..
8,000
Miri on the dates ........................... 20,000
Paid by the Commandant of Janissaries for his appoint-
ment .........................
2,000
Private revenue of the Zabit his own farms, gardens. 20,000
Total in piastres Hilla currency
Add the difference of exchange
290,500
50,000
Total in standard Turkish piastres
340,500


12
a Serdar or commandant of Janissaries, and a Cadi,
whose office, unlike any other of the same kind in
Turkey, has been continued in the same family for
upwards of a century. The inhabitants of Hilla bear
a very bad character. The air is salubrious, and
the soil extremely fertile, producing great quantities
of rice, dates, and grain of different kinds, though it
is not cultivated to above half the degree of which
it is susceptible.
Public Payments made by him to the Bagdad Government.
To the Pasha .......
.......... 260,000
- Kiahya Bey .......................... 30,000
Total in Turkish piastres 290,000
He also supplies government with 5,500 tagars of corn and
barley, in value about 165,000 piastres on the average; but this
he levies on the farmers at the rate of 2 tagars for every 5, over,
and above the rent and imposts of their farms and produce. He
must also supply the Pasha's army or any detachment of it that
may be in the neighbourhood; fee the most powerful members
of government from time to time, and yet be able to lay by a
sufficiency not only for his own reimbursement, but also to pay
the mulct that is invariably levied on governors when they are
removed, however well they may have discharged their duty.
And when it is considered that his continuance in office seldom
exceeds two or three years, it may well be imagined that he has
recourse to secret methods of accumulating wealth, and that the
inhabitants of his district are proportionally oppressed. The re-
gulation of this petty government is a just epitome of the general
system which has converted some of the finest countries of the
world into savage wastes and uninhabitable deserts.


13
The grand cause of this fertility is the Euphrates,
the banks of which are lower and the stream more
equal than the Tigris. Strabo says that it was a
stadium in breadth at Babylon ; according to Ren-
nel, about 491 English feet, or d’Anville's still more
reduced scale, 330. Niebuhr says, at Hilla it is 400
Danish feet broad; my measurement by a graduated
line at the bridge there brings it to 75 fathoms, or
450 feet;, its breadth however varies in its passage
through the ruins. Its depth I found to be 24 fa-
thoms, and the current runs at the medium rate of
about two knots, when lowest being probably half a
knot less, and when full, a knot more. The Tigris
is infinitely more rapid, having a current of near
seven knots when at its height. The Euphrates rises
at an earlier period than the Tigris; in the middle
of the winter it increases a little, but falls again soon
after; in March it again rises, and in the latter end
of April is at its full, continuing so till the latter end
of June. When at its height it overflows the sur-
rounding country, fills the canals dug for its recep-
tion, without the slightest exertion of labour, and
facilitates agriculture in a surprising degree. The
ruins of Babylon are then inundated so as to render
many parts of them inaccessible, by converting the
valleys among them into morasses. But the most
remarkable inundation of the Euphrates is at Felu-


giah, twelve leagues to the westward of Bagdad,
where on breaking down the dyke which confines
its waters within their proper channel, they flow over
the country and extend nearly to the banks of the
Tigris, with a depth sufficient to render them navi-
gable for rafts and flat-bottomed boats. At the
moment I am now writing (May 24th, 1812) rafts
laden with lime are brought on this inundation al-
most every day from Felugiah, to within a few hun-
dred yards of the northern gate of Bagdad, called
the Imam Mousa gate.
The water of the Euphrates is esteemed more sa-
lubrious than that of the Tigris. Its general course
through the site of Babylon is north and south. I
questioned the fishermen who ply on the river re-
specting its bottom, and they all agreed that bricks
and other fragments of building are very commonly
found in it. From the gentleness of the current, re-
gularity of the stream, and equal substance of the
banks, I am of opinion that the Euphrates would not
naturally alter its course in any great degree, cer-
tainly not so much as the Tigris, whose variations
in a few years are often very considerable. A variety
of circumstances may however have caused some al-
terations. It is evident from what Strabo says, that
the neglected state of the canals had considerably
injured the original stream, and it is possible that a


15
en
part of it might have continued to flow through the
channel cut by Cyrus for a long time afterwards*,
That some change in the course of the river has taken
place, will be hereafter shown.
I have before remarked that the whole of this
part of Mesopotamia is intersected by cana
These are of all ages; and it is not uncommon to see
workmen employed in excavating a new canal close
to and parallel with an old one, when it might be
supposed that the cleansing of the old one would be
a work of much less toil. The high embankments
of these canals easily impose on the unpractised eye
for ruins of buildings, especially when the channel
has been filled up by the accession of soil, and I
doubt not are the origin of the belief expressed by
some travellers, that there are ruins in the gardens
of Hilla. Niebuhr and Otter say that remains of
walls and edifices are in existence, though enveloped
in woods and coppices. Otter in particular observes
that the site of Babylon is, generally covered with
wood : this is certainly incorrect. On the ruins of
Babylon there is not a single tree growing, except-
ing the old one which I shall hereafter have occasion
to mention; but in the intervals of the ruins, where
* Vide Rollin, who quotes Arrian, whose work I regret not
having at present to refer to.


16
in all probability no building ever stood, there are
some patches of cultivation*. I made the most dili-
gent search all through the gardens, but found not
the slightest vestige of ruins, though previously I
heard of many,-an example of the value of infor-
mation resting solely on the authority of the natives.
The reason is obvious. Ruins composed, like those
of Babylon, of heaps of rubbish impregnated with
nitre, cannot be cultivated, and any inferior mound
would of course be levelled in making the garden..
In such a soil as that of Babylon it appears sur-
prising how long some of the canals have remained.
The Naher Malcha, a work of the Babylonian mon-
archs, might still be effectually repaired, and it is
probable that many of the canals now seen on the
site of Babylon may have been in existence when it
was a flourishing city. Some of the canals were used
for the purpose of navigation, and Alexander took
great pains to cleanse and restore those that were out
of order. Aristobulus, quoted by Strabo, lib. xvi.
page 510, edit. Casaub., says that he went into these
canals in a boat, which he steered himself, and in-
spected the repairs in person, in presence of a mul-
* I am unacquainted with the original work of Mr. Otter, and
imagine that the word coppice must exist only in the translation,
as it is an improper term, the only wood being the date gardens
of Hilla, to which certainly the word coppice will not apply.


:17
titude of spectators, cleansing the mouths of some
which were choked up with mud, and blocking up
others. In one instance, where the canal led to-
ward the morasses and lakes of the Arabian side, he
opened a new mouth thirty stadia from the old one,
in a more stony place, to ensure greater durability.
He also dug basons for his fleet; and in performing
these works, it is said the graves of many of the kings
and princes who were buried in the morasses were
dug up; by which I understand that the bad state
of the canals had caused inundations in the places
of sepulture. From the yielding nature of the soil I
can readily conceive the ease with which Cyrus dug
a trench round the city, sufficient to contain the ri-
ver (Cyrop. lib. vii.). I have not however been able
to discover any traces either of this trench, or the
lines of circumvallation..
The ruins of the eastern quarter of Babylon com-
mence about two miles above Hilla, and consist of
two large masses or mounds connected with and ly-
ing north and south of each other, and several smaller
ones which cross the plain at different intervals. The
northern termination of this plain is Pietro della
Valle's ruin, from the south-east angle of which (to
which it evidently once joined, being only oblite-
rated there by two canals,) proceeds a narrow ridge
or mound of earth, wearing the appearance of hav-
massa
no


18
ing been a boundary wall. Vide the annexed plan
(A). This ridge forms a kind of circular inclosure,
and joins the south-east point of the most southerly
of the two grand masses.
The river bank is skirted by a ruin (B), which I
shall, for perspicuity's sake, call its embankment,
though, as will hereafter be seen, there is good rea-
son for supposing it never was intended for one. It
commences on a line with the lower extremity of the
southernmost grand mound, and is there nearly
three hundred yards broad at its base, from the east
angle of which a mound (resembling the boundary A,
but broader and flatter,) proceeds, taking a sweep to
the south-east, so as to be nearly parallel with, and
forty yards more to the south than, that boundary;
this loses itself in the plain, and is in fact the most
southerly of all the ruins. The embankment is con-
tinued in a right line to the north, and diminishes
in breadth, but increases in elevation till at the di-
stance of seven hundred and fifty yards from its
commencement, where it is forty feet perpendicular
height, and is interrupted by a break (C) nearly of
the same breadth with the river: at this point a tri-
angular piece of ground commences, recently gain-
ed from the river, which deserts its original channel
above and returns to it again here: this gained
ground (D) is a hundred and ten yards in length,


20
ous red colour, nearly three hundred yards long and
one hundred broad, terminating on the top in a ridge:
it has been dug into in various parts, but few or no
fine whole bricks have been found in it*. All the
ruins of Babylon are contained within the western
division of the area, i. e. between the innermost of
these lines and the river, there being vestiges of
building in the eastern or largest division between
the outermost line and the external boundary..
Before entering into a minute description of the
ruins, to avoid repetition, it is necessary to state that
they consist of mounds of earth, formed by the de-
composition of building, channelled and furrowed
by the weather, and the surface of them strewed with
pieces of brick, bitumen, and pottery.
On taking a view of the ruins from south to north;
the first object that attracts attention is the low
mound connected with the embankment; on it are
two little parallel walls close together, and only a
few feet in height and breadth, which bear indis-
putable marks of having formed part of a Mohame-
. * I saw one found at the foot of this heap, which had an im-
pression resembling the spade or shovel in use at present among
the Arabs. This is a singular specimen, as I never saw an in,
stance of any other impression than that of writing on a Baby-
lonian brick. I therefore made a drawing of it, which will be
given in its proper place.


21
ass
tan oratory or Koubbè. This ruin is called Jumjuma
(Calvary), and gives its name to a village a little to
the left of it. The Turkish Geographer says, “To
the north of Hilla' on the river is Jumjuma, which
is the burial place of a Sultan.” Lasvas is the com-
mon name here for a skull. It also means, accord-
ing to Castell and Golius, “Puteus in loco salsugi-
noso fossus." Either etymology would be applica-
ble to this. To this succeeds the first grand mass
of ruins, which is one thousand one hundred yards
in length, and eight hundred in greatest breadth, its
figure nearly resembling that of a quadrant: its
height is irregular; but the most elevated part may
be about fifty or sixty feet above the level of the
plain, and it has been dug into for the purpose of .
procuring bricks. Just below the highest part of it
is a small dome in an oblong inclosure, which, it is
pretended, contains the body of a son of Ali, named
Amran, together with those of seven of his compa-
nions, all slain at the battle of Hilla. Unfortu-
nately for the credit of the tradition, however, it is
proved on better authority to be a fraud not uncom-
mon in these parts, Ali having had no son of this
description. From the most remarkable object on
it, I shall distinguish this mound by the name of
Amran.
i On the north-is a valley of five hundred and fifty


;
22
yards in length, the area of which is covered with
tussocks of rank grass, and crossed by a line of ruins
of very little elevation. To this succeeds the second
grand heap of ruins, the shape of which is nearly a
square, of seven hundred yards length and breadth,
and its south-west angle is connected with the north-
west angle of the mounds of Amran by a ridge of
considerable height and nearly one hundred yards
in breadth. This is the place where Beauchamp made
his observations, and it is certainly the most inter-
esting part of the ruins of Babylon : every vestige
discoverable in it declares it to have been composed
of buildings far superior to all the rest which have
left traces in the eastern quarter : the bricks are of
the finest description; and notwithstanding this is
the grand storehouse of them, and that the greatest
supplies have been and are now constantly drawn
from it, they appear still to be abundant. But the
operation of extracting the bricks has caused great
confusion, and contributed much to increase the
difficulty of decyphering the original design of this
mound, as in search of them the workmen pierce
into it in every direction, hollowing out deep ravines
and pits, and throwing up the rubbish in heaps on
the surface. In some places they have bored into
the solid mass, forming winding caverns and sub-
terranean passages, which, from their being left


23
IH
without adequate support, frequently bury the work-
men in the rubbish. In all these excavations walls
of burnt brick laid in lime mortar of a very good qua-
lity are seen; and in addition to the substances gene-
rally strewed on the surfaces of all these mounds we
here find fragments of alabaster vessels, fine earthen
ware, marble, and great quantities of varnished tiles,
the glazing and colouring of which are surprisingly
fresh. In a hollow near the southern part I found
a sepulchral urn of earthen ware, which had been
broken in digging, and near it lay some human bones
which pulverized with the touch,
To be more particular in my description of this
mound, not more than two hundred yards from its
northern extremity is a ravine (G) hollowed out by
those who dig for bricks, in length near a hundred
yards, and thirty feet wide by forty or fifty deep.
On one side of it a few yards of wall remain stand-
ing, the face of which is very clean and perfect, and
it appears to have been the front of some building.
The opposite side is so confused a mass of rubbish,
that it should seem the ravine had been worked
through a solid building. Under the foundations
at the southern end an opening is made, which dis-
covers a subterranean passage floored and walled
with large bricks laid in bitumen, and covered over
with pieces of sand stone, a yard thick and several


25
On sending for the old man who pointed out the
spot, I set a number of men to work, who after a
day's hard labour laid open enough of the statue to
show that it was a lion of colossal dimensions stand-
ing on a pedestal of a coarse kind of gray granite
and of rude workmanship; in the mouth was a cir-
cular aperture into which a man might introduce his
fist.
· A little to the west of the ravine at (H) is the next
remarkable object, called by the natives the Kasr, or
Palace, by which appellation I shall designate the
whole mass. It is a very remarkable ruin, which be-
ing uncovered, and in part detached from the rub-
bish, is visible from a considerable distance, but so
surprisingly fresh in its appearance, that it was only
after a minute inspection I was satisfied of its be-
ing in reality a Babylonian remain. It consists of
several walls and piers (which face the cardinal
points) eight feet in thickness, in some places or-
namented with niches, and in others strengthened
by pilasters and buttresses built of fine burnt brick
(still perfectly clean and sharp) laid in lime-cement
of such tenacity that those whose business it is have
given up working, on account of the extreme diffi-
culty of extracting them whole. The tops of these
walls are broken, and may have been much higher.
On the outside they have in some places been cleared


26
nearly to the foundations, but the internal spaces
formed by them are yet filled with rubbish in some
parts almost to their summit. One part of the wall
has been split into three parts and overthrown as if
by an earthquake; some detached walls of the same
kind, standing at different distances, show what re-
mains to have been only a small part of the original
fabrick : indeed it appears that the passage in the
ravine, together with the wall which crosses its up-
per end, were connected with it. There are some
hollows underneath, in which several persons have
lost their lives; so that no one will now venture into
them, and their entrances have now become choked
up with rubbish. Near this ruin is a heap of rub-
bish, the sides of which are curiously streaked by the
alternation of its materials, the chief part of which
it is probable was unburnt brick, of which I found
a small quantity in the neighbourhood, but no reeds
were discoverable in the interstices. There are two
paths near this ruin, made by the workmen who
carry down their bricks to the river side, whence
they are transported by boats to Hilla; and a little
to the north-north-east of it is the famous tree which
the Natives call Athele, and maintain to have been
flourishing in ancient Babylon, from the destruction
of which they say God purposely preserved it, that
it might afford Ali a convenient place to tie up his
;


27
horse after the battle of Hilla! It stands on a kind
of ridge, and nothing more than one side of its trunk
remains (by which it appears to have been of con-
siderable girth); yet the branches at the top are still
perfectly verdant, and gently waying in the wind
produce a melancholy rustling sound. It is an ever-
green, something resembling the lignum vitæ, and
of a kind, I believe, not common in this part of the
country, though I am told there is a tree of the same
description at Bassora.
All the people of the country assert that it is ex-
tremely dangerous to approach this mound after
night-fall, on account of the multitude of evil spirits
by which it is haunted.
It will not be necessary to describe the inferior
heaps, which cross the plain between the two prin-
cipal mounds and the inner line (F), and whose
form and extent will be sufficiently apparent from
the accompanying sketch : but, previous to giving
an account of the last grand ruin, I shall say a few
words more on the embankment of the river, which
is separated from the mounds of Amran and the
Kasr by a winding valley or rayine a hundred and
fifty yards in breadth, the bottom of which is white
with nitre, and apparently never had any buildings
in it, except a small circular heap in the centre of
it near the point (C). The whole embankment on


28
the river side is abrupt, perpendicular, and shivered
by the action of the water; at the foot of the most
elevated and narrowest part of it (K), cemented into
the burnt brick wall of which it is composed, are a
number of urns filled with human bones which had
not undergone the action of fire. The river appears
to have encroached here, for I saw a considerable
quantity of burnt bricks and other fragments of
building in the water.
A mile to the north of the Kasr, or full five miles
distant from Hilla, and nine hundred and fifty yards
from the river bank, is the last ruin of this series,
which has been described by Pietro della Valle, who
determines it to have been the Tower of Belus, an
opinion adopted by Rennel. The natives call it
Mukallibe (adës), or, according to the vulgar Arab
pronunciation of these parts, Mujelibè, meaning
overturned; they sometimes also apply this term to
the mounds of the Kasr. It is of an oblong shape,
irregular in its height and the measurement of its
sides, which face the cardinal points; the northern
side being two hundred yards in length, the south-
ern two hundred and nineteen, the eastern one hun-
dred and eighty-two, and the western one hundred
and thirty-six ; the elevation of the south-east or
highest angle, one hundred and forty-one feet. The
western face, which is the least elevated, is the most


29:-
interesting on account of the appearance of build-
ing it presents. Near the summit of it appears a
low wall, with interruptions, built of unburnt bricks
mixed up with chopped straw or reeds, and cement-
ed with clay-mortar of great thickness, having be-
tween every layer a layer of reeds; and on the north
side are also some vestiges of a similar construction.
The south-west angle is crowned by something like
a turret or lantern: the other angles are in a less per-
fect state, but may originally have been ornamented
in a similar manner. The western face is lowest and
easiest of ascent, the northern the most difficult.
All are worn into furrows by the weather; and in
some places, where several channels of rain have
united together, these furrows are of great depth,
and penetrate a considerable way into the mound.
The summit is covered with heaps of rubbish, in dig-
ging into some of which, layers of broken burnt
brick cemented with mortar are discovered, and
whole bricks with inscriptions on them are here and
there found: the whole is covered with innumerable
fragments of pottery, brick, bitumen, pebbles, vitri-
fied brick or scoria, and even shells, bits of glass, and
mother of pearl. On asking a Turk how he imagined
these latter substances were brought there, he re-
plied, without the least hesitation, “By the deluge."
There are many dens of wild beasts in various parts,


30
in one of which I found the bones of sheep and other
animals, and perceived a strong smell like that of a
lion. I also found quantities of porcupine quills,
and in most of the cavities are numbers of bats and
owls. It is a curious coincidence that I here first
heard the oriental account of satyrs. I had always
imagined the belief of their existence was confined
to the mythology of the West : but a Chôadar, who
was with me when I examined this ruin, mentioned
by accident, that in this desert an animal is found
resembling a man from the head to the waist, but
having the thighs and legs of a sheep or goat: he
said also that the Arabs hunt it with dogs, and eat
the lower parts, abstaining from the upper on ac-
count of their resemblance to those of the human
species. “But wild beasts of the desert shall lie
there, and their houses shall be full of doleful crea-
tures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall
dance there.” Isaiah xiii. 21.* .
* I with difficulty refrain from transcribing the whole of this
most spirited and poetical chapter. The Hebrew word which we
translate satyrs is O''yi literally " the hairy ones,” a signifie
cation which has been preserved in the Vulgate. In Lev. xvï.7.
the word is used for “devils, evil spirits.” The present Jews
understand it in this place as synonymous with D'or demons.
I know not why we introduced the word satyrs,--probably on the
authority of Aben Ezra, or some other commentator,—but we
should have been cautious how we made the Prophet in a man.


31
In the northern face of the Mujelibè, near the
summit, is a niche or recess high enough for a man
to stand upright in, at the back of which is a low
aperture leading to a small cavity, whence a passage
branches off to the right, sloping upwards in a west-
erly direction, till it loses itself in the rubbish. The
natives call this the serdaub or cellar; and a respect-
able person informed me that four years ago some
men searching in it for bricks pulled out a quantity
of marble, and afterwards a coffin of mulberry wood
containing a human body inclosed in a tight wrap-
per, and apparently partially covered with bitumen,
which crumbled into dust soon after exposure to the
air. This account, together with its appearing the
most favourable spot to ascertain something of the
original plan of the whole, induced me to set twelve
men to work to open a passage into the serdaub from
above. They dug into a shaft or hollow pier, sixty
feet square, lined with fine brick laid in bitumen, and
filled up with earth : in this they found a brass spike,
some earthen vessels (one of which was very thin,
and had the remain of fine white varnish on the out-
ner accountable for a fabulous being. Since the above was writ.
ten I find that the belief of the existence of satyrs is by no means
rare in this country. The Arabs call them Sied Assad, and say
that they abound in some woody places near Semava on the Eve
phrates.


32
side), and a beam of date-tree wood. On the third
day's work they made their way into the opening,
and discovered a narrow passage nearly ten feet high
half filled with rubbish, flat on the top, and exhibit-
ing both burnt and unburnt bricks; the former with
inscriptions on them, and the latter, as usual, laid
with a layer of reeds between every row, except in
one or two courses near the bottom, where they
were cemented with bitumen; a curious and unac-
countable circumstance. This passage appeared as
if it originally had a lining of fine burnt brick ce-
mented with bitumen, to conceal the unburnt brick;
of which the body of the building was principally
composed. Fronting it is another passage (or rather
a continuation of the same to the eastward, in which
direction it probably extends at considerable di-
stance, perhaps even all along the northern front
of the Mujelibè) choked up with earth, in digging
out which I discovered near the top a wooden coffin
containing a skeleton in high preservation. Under
the head of the coffin was a round pebble; attached
to the coffin on the outside a brass bird, and inside
an-ornament of the same material, which had ap-
parently been suspended to some part of the skele-
ton. These, could any doubt remain, place the an-
tiquity of the skeleton beyond all dispute. This
being extracted, a little further in the rubbish, the


33
skeleton of a child was found; and it is probable that
the whole of the passage, whatever its extent may
be, was occupied in a similar manner. No skulls
were found, either here or in the sepulchral urns at
the bank of the river.
- At the foot of the Mujelibè, about seventy yards
from it, on the northern and western sides, are traces
of a very low mound of earth, which may have
formed an inclosure round the whole. Further to
the north of the river, there are no more vestiges of
ruins; but the heaps in the direction of the Bagdad
road shall be examined more particularly at a future
opportunity.
· I have now done with the eastern side of the river,
and shall next proceed to take a survey of all that
remains of Babylon on the western. The loose and
inaccurate accounts of some modern travellers have
misled D'Anville and Rennel into the belief of there
being considerable ruins on the western bank of the
river, corresponding with those I have just described
on the eastern. That this is not the case, I was
satisfied by the view I obtained from the top of the
Mujelibè; yet I determined, for greater accuracy,
to examine the whole bank minutely. It is flat, and
intersected by canals, the principal of which are the
Tajia or Ali Pasha's trench, and the canal of Tah-
masia. There are a few small villages on the river
D


34
inclosed by mud walls, and surrounded by cultiva.
tion ; but there is not the slightest vestige of ruins,
excepting opposite the mass of Amran, where are
two small mounds of earth overgrown with grass,
forming a right angle with each other, and a little
further on are two similar ones. These do not ex-
ceed a hundred yards in extent, and the place is
called by the peasants Anana. To the north the
country has a verdant mạrshy appearance.
But although there are no ruins in the immediate
vicinity of the river, by far the most stupendous and
surprising mass of all the remains of Babylon is situ-
ated in this desert, about six miles to the south-west
of Hilla. It is called by the Arabs Birs. Nemroud*,
by the Jews Nebuchadnezzar's Prison, and has been
described both by Père Emanuel and Niebuhr (who
was prevented from inspecting it closely by fear of
the Arabs), but I believe it has not been noticed
appears subject in that langus for its being applied o17301 par
* The etymology of the word Birs (ww.) would furnish a
curious subject for those who are fond of such discussion. It
appears not to be Arabic, as it has no meaning which relates
to this subject in that language, nor can the most learned per-
sons here assign any reason for its being applied to this ruin.
xn7o 7779 in Chaldean signifies a palace, and 7779277 par
excellence, the Temple of Jerusalem. you in the same language,
Ar. mean the habitation of dæmons, or a
sandy desert.
and


36
extent and dreary solitude of the wastes in which
this venerable ruin stands.
The Birs Nemroud is a mound of an oblong figure,
the total circumference of which is seven hundred
and sixty-two yards. At the eastern side it is cloven
by a deep furrow, and is not more than fifty or sixty
feet high; but at the western it rises in a conical
figure to the elevation of one hundred-and ninety-
eight feet, and on its summit is a solid pile of brick
thirty-seven feet high by twenty-eight in breadth,
diminishing in thickness to the top, which is broken
and irregular, and rent by a large fissure extending
through a third of its height. It is perforated by
small square holes disposed in rhomboids. The fine
burnt bricks of which it is built have inscriptions on
them; and so admirable is the cement, which ap-
pears to be lime-mortar, that, though the layers are
so close together that it is difficult to discern what
substance is between them, it is nearly impossible to
extract one of the bricks whole. The other parts
of the summit of this hill are occupied by immense
fragments of brick-work of no determinate figure,
tumbled together and converted into solid vitrified
masses, as if they had undergone the action of the
fiercest fire, or been blown up with gunpowder, the
layers of the bricks being perfectly discernible,-a
curious fact, and one for which I am utterly inca,


37
pable of accounting. These, incredible as it may
seem, are actually the ruins spoken of by Père Ema-
nuel, who takes no sort of notice of the prodigious
mound on which they are elevated*.
It is almost needless to observe that the whole of
this mound is itself a ruin, channelled by the wea-
ther and strewed with the usual fragments and with
pieces of black stone, sand-stone, and marble. In
the eastern part layers of unburnt brick are plainly.
to be seen, but no reeds were discernible in any part:
possibly the absence of them here, when they are
.so generally seen under similar circumstances, may
be an argument of the superior antiquity of the ruin.
In the north side may be seen traces of building
exactly similar to the brick-pile. At the foot of the
mound a step may be traced, scarcely elevated above
the plain, exceeding in extent by several feet each
-way the true or measured base; and there is a qua-
drangular inclosure round the whole, as at the Mu-
jelibè, but much more perfect and of greater dimen-
* " Le P. Emanuel dit avoir vu (dans la partie occidentale)
de grands pans de murs encore debout, d'autres renversés, mais
d'une construction si solide, qu'il n'est presque pas possible de
détacher d'entre eux les carreaux de brique d'un pied et demi de
longueur dont on sait que les édifices de Babylone étoient con.
struits. Les Juifs, établis dans le pays, appellent ces restes de
bâtisse la prison de Nabuchadnasser; il conviendroit mieux de
Lire le palais.??--D'Anville sur l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 117.


39
lation to the ruins of Babylon. Nebbi Eyoub, or the
tomb of the prophet Job, is a Koubbè
the Euphrates, three leagues to the southward of
Hilla ; and just below it is a large canal called Ja-
zeria (09.jj), said to be of great antiquity; close to
which are two large mounds or masses of ruins named
EI Mokhatat bbsw) and El Adouar Colowy). Four
leagues below Hilla, on the same side of the Eu-
phrates, but not on the bank, is a village called Jer,
bouiya (taigoje), near, which is a considerable col-
lection of ruins similar to those of Babylon, and
called by the natives Boursa (two!), probably the
Borosippa of Strabo, and Barsita of Ptolemy*. The
governor of Hilla informed me of a mound as large
as the Mujelibè, situated thirty-five hours to the
southward of Hilla; and that a few years ago, a cap
or diadem of pure gold, and some other articles of
the same metal, were found there, which the Khezail
Arabs refused to give up to the Pasha. In the
*opia quasi "DAW 70 in Chaldean, whence the Greek
Borosippa, is, according to the Talmuds, the name of the place
in Babel near the Tower, whose air renders a man forgetful. I
have not yet had leisure to search the Talmud and other Hebrew
and Chaldean works for the traditions concerning Babylon, and
am unwilling to detain this memoir (which has already been so
much and so unexpectedly retarded) any longer for such infor-
mation; but I have some hopes of being able to make it the sub-
ject of a future communication.


40
western desert bearing north-west from the top of
the Mujelibè, is a large mound called Towereij
lesb). In the same desert, two leagues to the
west of Hilla, is the village of Tahmasia, built by
Nadir Shah, where, it is said, are some trifling
mounds; this village must occupy part of the site of
Babylon. From the top of the Mujelibè in a south-
erly direction, at a great distance, two large mounds
are visible, with whose names I am unacquainted
Five or six miles to the east of Hilla is Al Hheimar
Wasil), which is a curious ruin, as bearing, on a
smaller scale, some resemblance to the Birs Nem-
roud. The base is a heap of rubbish, on the top of
which is a mass of red brick-work, between each
layer of which is a curious white substance, which
pulverizes on the least touch. I have not yet visited
Al Hheimar, but those who have, conjectured, from
the grain of the white substance or powder, seem-
ingly lying in filaments, that it must have originally
been layers of reeds. I have seen a specimen ad-
hering to a piece of brick, but not sufficiently well
preserved to enable me to form any decisive judge-
ment; but I cannot imagine how reeds, under any
circumstances, could be brought to assume such an
appearance; and besides, they are never found in
buildings composed, as this is, of burnt brick.
To these ruins I add one, which, though not in


the same direction, bears such strong characteristics
of a Babylonian origin, that it would be improper
to omit a description of it in this place. I mean
Akerkouf (wjjjës), or, as it is more generally called,
Nimrod's Tower, for the inhabitants of these parts
are as fond of attributing every vestige of antiquity
to Nimrod, as those of Egypt are to Pharaoh. It is
situated ten miles to the north-west of Bagdad, and
is a thick mass of unburnt brick-work of an irregu.
lar shape, rising out of a base of rubbish; there is a
layer of reeds between every fifth or sixth (for the
number is not regulated) layer of bricks. It is per-
forated with small square holes, as the brick-work
at the Birs Nemroud, and about half way up on the
east side is an aperture like a window; the layers of
cement are very thin, which, considering it is mere
mud, is an extraordinary circumstance. The height
of the whole is one hundred and twenty-six feet;
diameter of the largest part, one hundred feet;
circumference of the foot of the brick-work above
the rubbish, three hundred feet; the remains of the
tower contain one hundred thousand cubic feet.
(Vide Įves's Travels, p. 298.) To the east of it is
a dependent mound resembling those at the Birs,
and Al Hheimar.
I shall now inquire which of the public works,
that conspired with its size to render Babylon so


42
celebrated among the ancients, was likely to have
left the most considerable traces at the present day;
and how far the vestiges which may be imagined
would have remained, correspond with what we now
find.
Of all the ancient writers who have described
Babylon, Herodotus and Diodorus are the most mi-
nute. Much weight must certainly be placedoni
the accounts of the former of these historians, who
was an eye-witness of what he relates, notwith-
standing the exaggeration and credulity which may
in some instances be laid to his charge. The ac-
counts of later writers are of comparatively small
value. Pliny in particular has done nothing more
than copy Herodotus. Strabo's general accuracy
and personal experience indeed render his descrip-
tion of great interest, as far as it goes; but he could
only have seen Babylon at a period when its public
- buildings had already become heaps of rubbish, and
consequently must have depended upon more ancient
authorities for particular accounts of most of them.
. The greatest circumference the ancients have
ascribed to the city walls, is four hundred and e
stadia; the most moderate, three hundred and sixty.
Strabo, who is excellent authority in this particular,
as he must have seen the walls in a sufficiently per-
fect state to form his judgement, allows three hun-


43
dred and eighty-five; but the smallest computation
supposes an area for the city, of which we can now
scarcely form an idea. Whatever may have been
the size of Babylon, I imagine that its population
bore no proportion to it: and that it would convey
to a modern the idea of an inclosed district, rather
than that of a regular city; the streets, which are
said to have led from gate to gate across the area,
being no more than roads through cultivated land,
over which buildings were distributed in groups or
patches. Quintus Curtius says positively that there
was pasture and arable land in the inclosure, suffi-
cient to support the whole of the population during
a long siege ; and Xenophon reports that when
Cyrus took Babylon (which event happened at night)
the inhabitants of the opposite quarter of the town
were not aware of it till the third part of the day,
i. e. three hours after sun-rise; which was very pos-
sibly owing to the great distance of one eluster of
houses from another; since, had they been connect-
ed with each other in regular streets, the noise and
confusion would, I think, have spread the informa-
tion of the event with much greater rapidity.
• All accounts agree in the height of the walls,
which was fifty cubits, having been reduced to these
dimensions from the prodigious height of three hun-
dred and fifty feet, by Darius Hystaspes, after the


44
rebellion of the town, in order to render it less de-
fensible. I have not been fortunate enough to dis-
cover the least trace of them in any part of the ruins.
at Hilla; which is rather an unaccountable circum-
stance, considering that they survived the final ruin
of the town, long after which they served as an in-
closure for a park; in which comparatively perfect
state St. Jerome informs us they remained in his
time. Nor can the depredations subsequently com-.
mitted in them in the building of Hilla, and other
similar places, satisfactorily account for their having
totally disappeared: for though it is evident they
would have been the first object to attract the atten..
tion of those who searched after bricks; yet when
they had been thoroughly dilapidated, the mass of
rubbish, which most probably formed the heart or
substance of them, together with the very deep ditch,
would alone have left traces sufficiently manifest að
the present day. -
Similar in solidity and construction to the city
walls, was the artificial embankment of the river
with its breast-work, the former of which Diodorus
informs us was one hundred stadia in length. The
traces of these are entirely obliterated: for though
on a cursory view the mound which now forms the
eastern bank of the river (and which for perspicuity's.
sake I have called the embankment) would be likely


45
to deceive observers; yet the alteration in the course
of the river at that place, the form of the southern
part of the mound, and, above all, the sepulchral.
urns found built up in it close to the water's edge,
are sufficient proofs that it cannot be the remains of
the ancient embankment.
The most extraordinary building within the city
was the tower, pyramid, or sepulchre of Belus, the
base of which Strabo says was a square of a stadium
each side, and it was a stadium in height. It has
been generally considered that Herodotus has given
an extravagant account of its dimensions : he says
that the first platform, or largest and lowest of the
eight towers of which it was composed, was otadicü
Hai to dñicos nai To sūpos, which has been rendered
“a stadium in height and breadth ;" which, sup-
posing the seven other towers to have borne some
proportion to it, may be clearly pronounced an ab-
surdity: but uñsos also signifies length, space, pro-
lixity ; in this signification it combines better with
sởpos, as length and breadth is a more usual phrase
than height and breadth, and the passage then would
mean no more than that the base was a square of a
stadium.
If a sentence can be interpreted in two different
ways, it is surely not fair to charge the author with
the worst; and it is possible that, on a critical ex-


46
amination of the venerable father of history, much
of the blame arising from his reputed inaccuracies
would be divided between his transcribers and trans-
lators*. The tower stood in a quadrangle of two
miles and a half, which contained the temple in
which divine honours were paid to the tutelar deity
of Babylon, and probably also cells for the numerous
establishment of priests attached to it.
An additional interest attaches itself to the sepul-
chre of Belus, from the probability of its identity
with the tower which the descendants of Noah, with
Belus at their head, constructed in the plain of
Shinaar, the completion of which was prevented in
so memorable a manner. I am strongly inclined to
differ from the sense in which Gen. xi. 4. is com-
monly understood, and I think too much importance
has been attached to the words “ may reach unto
heaven," which are not in the original, whose words
are DDV: 1W871. " and its top to the skies,” by a
* The only passage my memory immediately supplies me with,
in which the word uñxos may also be understood in the way I pro.
pose, is the 155th line of the 7th book of the Iliad. Nestor is
relating his victory over the giant Ereuthalion; after having
stretched him on the plain, he exclaims “ Tòv on uÝMiotov xai xág-
τίστον κτάνον άνδρα” evidently with the idea present to him of
viewing the space of ground he covered as he lay; for he imme-
diately adds “ Loanos yág tis Ěxeito, nagvopos švba xai švbce."
Bat, I doubt not, better authorities might be easily produced.


48
them. Pliny, seventy years after Strabo, mentions
"the Temple of Jupiter Belus, the inventor of astro-
nomy," as still standing; and all travellers since the
time of Benjamin of Tudela, who first revived the
remembrance of the ruins, whenever they fancied
themselves near the site of Babylon, universally fixed
upon the most conspicuous eminence to represent
the Tower of Belus. Benjamin of Tudela, Rawulf,
and some others, saw it among the ruins of old Fe-
lugiah ; and, fully bent upon verifying the words of
Scripture, fancied it infested by every species of ve-
nomous reptile. If we take Rawulf's account, in-
deed, he must in the 16th century have seen Babylon
nearly as perfect as it was in Strabo's time, and he
has no kind of difficulty in pointing out the minutest
divisions of the city. I believe Pietro della Valle
was the first who selected the Mujelibèas the remains
of this celebrated structure. Père Emanuel and
Niebuhr are the only writers who have noticed the
Birs Nemroud; and the former, from the account
he has given, or the clearness of the idea he appears
to have formed, might with equal advantage to the
world and himself have never seen it.
· Notwithstanding the apparent ease with which
this important point in the topography of Babylon
has been determined, a careful examiner will find
as great a difficulty in discovering the Tower of


49
Belus, as in identifying any other part of the ruins.
Taking for granted the site of Babylon to be in the
vicinity of the Hilla, his choice will be divided be-
tween two objects, the Mujelibè and the Birs Nem-
roud. I shall briefly notice the arguments in favour
of each, with the difficulties and objections which
may be advanced, first giving a comparative state-
ment of their dimensions with those of the original
tower.
English feet.
Total circumference or sum of the four
· sides of the Birs
. . . 2286
Ditto of the Mujelibè . .
2111
Ditto of the Tower of Belus, taking five
hundred feet for the stadium, at a
rough calculation . . i 2000
By this it appears that the measurement both of
the Birs and the Mujelibè agrees as nearly as possi-
ble with that of the Tower of Belus, considering our
ignorance of the exact proportion of the stadium,
and the enlargement which the base must have un-
dergone by the crumbling of the materials. The
variations in the form of the Mujelibè from a per-
fect square, are not more than the accidents of time
will account for; and the reader will best judge
from my description, whether the summit and ex-


50
ternal appearance of this ruin correspond in any
way with the accounts of the tower. That there
may have been some superstructure on it appears
probable, from the irregularity of the summit, and
the quantity of burnt brick found there; but it is
impossible to decide on the form or extent of this
superstructure, and it may be thought that there
does not remain in the irregularities on the top, a
sufficient quantity of rubbish to account for an ele:
vation equal to that of the tower, the whole height
now being only one hundred and forty feet. To
those who, from the traces of an inclosure some-
what resembling a ditch with a glacis, and the ap-
pearances of lanterns or turrets at one or two of the
corners, would conjecture this to be the ruins of a
castle, it must be objected that the inclosure which
we know surrounded the tower, might leave just
such traces; and indeed we observe perfectly simi-
lar ones in ruins which we know never could have
been castellated, as for instance, at the Birs Al
Hheimar and Akerkouf; that the corners of the
base of the tower may have been rounded off for
ornament or use, and that the interior appearance
and solidity of the ruin argue completely against its
having been a castle. We have besides every reason
to believe that there never was a castle at Babylon,
except the fortified palace; and the opinion of a


51
few Turks, who call it the Kalâa, or citadel, is not
worth noticing. .
Of the grand inclosure of two miles and half,
which surrounded the temple and tower, and was
probably the boundary of the sanctuary or holy
ground, there are no traces here; and indeed such
an inclosure would be incompatible with the boun-
dary-line (A). The passage filled with skeletons in
the Mujelibè, is a circumstance that will embarrass
equally those who may be of opinion it was a castle,
and those who judge it to have been the Tower of
Belus ; though probably it would be more favour-
able to the theory of the latter than that of the for-
mer. We gain nothing in this instance by studying
position. Major Rennel considers this ruin as suf-
ficiently answering to the site of the Tower of Belus:
he does not however establish its position from that
of the other ruins, but assumes it as a datum to as-
certain the situation and extent of the rest of Ba-
bylon." .
"... The only building which can dispute the palm
with the Mujelibè is the Birs Nemroud, previous
to visiting which I had not the slightest idea of the
possibility of its being the Tower of Belus; indeed
its situation was a strong argument against such a
supposition : but the moment I had examined it I
could not help exclaiming, “Had this been on the
..
E 2


52
other side of the river, and nearer the great mass of
ruins, no one could doubt of its being the remains
of the tower.” As this therefore is the principal
objection that can be brought against it, it will be
proper to consider it first.
I believe it is no where positively asserted that the
Tower of Belus stood in the eastern quarter of Ba-.
bylon. Herodotus, Strabo, Pliny, and Quintus Cur-
tius, do not affirm this, but it is certainly the gene-
rally received opinion; and Major Rennel says,
“ It may be pretty clearly collected from Diodorus,
that the temple stood on the east side and the palace
on the west. A presumptive proof of the supposed
position of the temple, should the words of Diodo-
rus be regarded as ambiguous, is, that the gate of
the city named Belidian, and which we must con-
clude to be denominated from the temple, appears
pretty clearly to have been situated on the east side.
When Darius Hystaspes besieged Babylon, the
Belidian and Cissian gates were opened to him by
Zopyrus; and the Babylonians fled to the Temple of
Belus, as we may suppose, the nearest place of re-
fuge. The Cissian or Susian gate must surely have
been in the eastern part of the city, as Susa lay tọ
the east; and by circumstances the Belidian gate was
near it.” Geogr. of Herod. page 355-357. Now,
I do not think these premises altogether warrant the


53
conclusion : in these countries, as has before been
remarked *, gates take the names of the places to
and not from which they lead; the gates of Babylon
are instances of this, and the very gate next the Be-
lidian was called Susian, from the town to which
the road it opened upon led; so that, if the Beli-
dian gate really derived its appellation from the
temple, it would have been a singular instance, not
merely in Babylon, but in the whole East at any
period. It is consequently much easier to suppose
there may have been a town, village, or other re-
markable place without the city, the tradition of
which is now lost, which gave its name to the gate,
than that such an irregularity existed. As to the
inhabitants in their distress taking refuge within the
precincts of the temple, it is probable they were in-
duced to it, not from its proximity to the point of
attack, but as the grand sanctuary, and from its
holiness and great celebrity the one most likely to
be respected by the enemy.
The difficulty is however by no means vanquished,
by allowing the Temple and Tower of Belus to have
stood on the east side : a very strong objection may
be brought against the Birs Nemroud, in the di-
stance of its position from the extensive remains on
* Vide also Rennel..


54
the eastern 'bank of the Euphrates, which, for its
accommodation within the area of Babylon, would
oblige us to extend the measurement of each side of
the square to nine miles, or adopt a plan which
would totally exclude the Mujelibè, all the ruins
above it, and most of those below : even in the for-
mer case the Mujelibè and the Birs would be at
opposite extremities of the town, close to the wall,
while we have every reason to believe that the Tower
of Belus occupied a central situation. Whether the
Birs stood within or without the walls, if it was a
building distinct from the Tower of Belus, it appears
very surprising how so stúpendous a pile, as it must
have been in its perfect state, never attracted the
attention of those who have enumerated the won-
ders of Babylon.
The plan of the Birs varies more from a perfect
square than that of the Mujelibè, which may be ac-
counted for, on the supposition of its having been
in a state of ruin for a much longer period. I think
from its general appearance there are some reasons
to conclude it was built in several stages, gradually
diminishing to the summit. The annexed sketch, in
four different views, will convey a clearer idea of it
than any description would, and enable in some mea-
sure the reader to judge for himself.
In forming a conjecture on the original destina-


55
tion of the Birs, the mound situated parallel to its
eastern face, which must have been a building of
great dimensions, must not be overlooked. The
temple attached to the Tower of Belus must have
been a very spacious edifice, and formed part of its
quadrangular inclosure, of which it is probable. it
did not occupy more than one side, the three re-
maining ones being composed of accommodations
for the priests and attendants, of course inferior in
proportions to the temple : allowing some degree of
resemblance in other respects, between the Birs
and the Tower, the elevation observable round the
former will represent the priests' apartments, and
the above-mentioned mound the temple itself. We
find the same kind of mound, and precisely in the
same situation, attached to other ruins which have a
strong resemblance in themselves to the Birs; and
we may therefore reasonably conclude that they
were intended for the same design, either the honour
of the dead, the observation of the celestial bodies,
religious worship, or perhaps some of these motives
combined. In like manner we find in Egypt the
original idea of the Pyramids exactly copied at dif-
ferent times on a smaller scale, and each pyramid
having its dependant temple. I leave to the learned
the decision of this point, and the determining what
degree of resemblance, in form and purpose, exists
.


56
between the Pyramids of Memphis and the Tower
of Belus.
I have dwelt the longer on this most interesting
of the Babylonian edifices, as I shall have but little
to offer on the rest. The citadel or palace (for it
served both these purposes, and was the only fortress
within the walls,) was surrounded by an exterior
wall of sixty stadia in circumference; inside which
was another of forty stadia, the interior face of:
which was ornamented with painting, as is the cus-
tom of the Persians at the present day; and again,
within this last was a third, adorned with designs of
hunting. On the opposite side of the river, and on
the same side with the Tower of Belus, was situated
the old palace, the outer wall of which was no larger
than the inner one of the new. Above the new
palace or citadel were the hanging gardens, which,
according to Strabo, formed a square of four ple-
thora each face, and were fifty cubits in height.
When I consider the dimensions of the Sefivieh pa-
lace at Isfahaun, and other similar building's yet re-
maining in the East, I see no difficulty in admitting
the account of the Babylonian palace in its full ex-
tent. The antiquarian will consider how far the
measurement of the ruins inclosed between the river
and the boundary on the east corresponds with those
of the palace: in some respects the Mujelibè would


.
58
and serdaubs or cellars, sunk a little below the
ground, for the comfort of the inhabitants during
the heats; above this a gallery with the lodging-
rooms opening into it, and over all the flat terrace
for the people to sleep on during the summer.
- From what remains of Babylon, and even from
the most favourable account handed down to us,
there is every reason to believe that the public edi-
fices which adorned it, were remarkable more for
vastness of dimensions than elegance of design, and
solidity of fabric rather than beauty of execution.
The Tower of Belus appears merely to have been
astonishing from its size. It was inferior in some
respects to the Pyramids, and did not surpass either
them or probably the great temple of Mexico in
external appearance; and the ornaments of which
Xerxes despoiled it, convey an idea of barbaric rich-
ness, rather than taste : all the sculptures which are
found among the ruins, though some of them are
executed with the greatest apparent care, speak a
barbarous people. Indeed with a much greater de.
gree of refinement than the Babylonians seem to
have been in possession of, it would be difficult to
make any thing of such unpropitious materials as
brick and bitumen. Notwithstanding the assertion
of M. Dutens, there are the strongest grounds for
supposing that the Babylonians were entirely unac-


59
quainted with the arch, of which I could not find
the slightest trace in any part of the ruins where I
purposely made the strictest search; particularly in
the subterranean at the Kasr, and the passages in
Mujelibè. The place of the column too appears to
have been supplied by thick piers, buttresses, and
pilasters; for to the posts of date-wood, which was
then and is still made great use of in the architec-
ture of this country, the name of pillar certainly
cannot with propriety be applied. Strabo says,
“On account of the scarcity of proper timber, the
wood-work of the houses is made of the date-tree ;
round the posts they twist reeds, on which they ap-
ply a coat of paint*." What Xenophon and Strabo
say of the doors being smeared over with bitumen,
I understand to be meant of the naphtha oil, with
which they at present varnish all their painted work;
the reasons for covering a door with bitumen not
* It is curious to compare the account Strabo gives, lib. xvi.
pag. 511, of the uses to which the Babylonians applied the date
in his time, with the practice of the present day. He says, The
date furnished them with bread, honey, wine, and vinegar; the
stones supplied the blacksmiths with charcoal ; or, being mace-
rated, afforded food for cattle. The peasantry now principally
subsist on dates pressed into cakes; they prepare molasses (dibs),
make vinegar, and distil a spirituous liquor called Arrak from
them, but of the two latter uses mentioned by Strabo they are
ignorant. Oil of sesame is still the only sort used, either for
eating or burning, as in the time of Strabo..


60
being so obvious. When any considerable degree
of thickness was required, the way of building was
to form an interior of common brick or rubbish,
cased with a revêtement of fine brick; there are
traces in the ruins which justify this opinion ; 'and
in this manner the Tower of Belus (which Herodo-
tus calls mupyou ot£p£05), the city walls, and other
buildings of that description, seem to have been
constructed.
We find two kinds of brick in Babylon; one burnt
in a kiln, the other simply dried in the sun. I cannot
refrain in this place from offering a few remarks on
Gen. xi. 3, where concerning the building of Babel
it is said: Doa?nh nan ngụ ở ng"
וְנִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׁוְפָה וַתְּהִי לָהֶם הַלְבֵנָה לְאָבָן וְהַחֵמָר
7905 ons on Our translation is : “And they
said one to another, Go to, let us make brick and
burn them thoroughly : and they had brick for
stone, and slime had they for mortar.” This is in-
correct. The Chaldee paraphrast has mai ampai
לְהוֹן לְבֵינְתָא לְאַבְנָא וְתֵימָרָא דְוָה לְהוֹן לְשִׁיעַ
-Ac
cording to Buxtorff, and indeed the sense it still
bears in these parts, non means cement, and non
bitumen; so that the Vulgate is correct in saying: -
“Dixitque alter ad proximum suum, Venite, facia-
mus lateres et coquamus eos igni: habueruntque la-


61
teres pro saxis, et bitumen pro cemento.” I have
not a Polyglot to consult, and therefore am not able
to trace the error in our version higher than to Lu-
ther's German one. It is true Castell translates non.
limus, lutum, in Gen. xi. 3, and bitumen in Exod. ii.3.
This is extraordinary; for, of the two, the context of
the latter passage would appear rather to justify the
former reading, to avoid the seeming tautology be-
tween 2017 and not I conclude he must have taken
the common translation of the Bible as sufficient au-
thority, without further examination ; for he allows
the Chaldee word &99'm (Targ. Gen. xi. 3.) to sig-
nify bitumen, in direct opposition to his definition
of the corresponding Hebrew word. 7a signifies
brick, of course the burnt sort from its root; and
both Golius and Castell, perhaps relying too much
on the Hebrew derivation, translate the Arabic word
in burnt brick also. Nevertheless it is now ex-
clusively applied by the Arabs to the brick merely
dried in the sun.
Thegeneral size of the kiln-burnt brick is thirteen
inches square, by three-thick: there are some of
half these dimensions, and a few of different shapes
for particular purposes, such as rounding corners,
&c. They are of several different colours ; white,
approaching more or less to a yellowish cast, like
our Stourbridge or fire brick, which is the finest


62
.
sort; red, like our ordinary brick, which is the
coarsest sort; and some which have a blackish cast
and are very hard. The sun-dried brick is consider-
ably larger than that baked in the kiln, and in géne-
ral looks like a thick clumsy clod of earth, in which
are seen small broken reeds, or chopped straw, used
for the obvious purpose of binding them : in like
manner the flat roofs of the houses at Bagdad are
covered with a composition of earth and mortar
mixed up with chopped straw. At the Birs Nem-
roud I found some fire-burnt bricks, which appeared
to have had the same materials in their composition.
Thebest sun-dried bricks I ever saw, are those which
compose the ruin called Akerkouf..
There are three kinds of cement discoverable in
the ruins of Babylon : bitumen, mortar, and clay:
I am inclined to think the former could never have
been of such very general use as is commonly ima-
gined; we now only find it in a few situations (not
always such as indicate the reason for which it was
used), except the small pieces of it which are found
on the surface of the mounds. Though the foun-
tains at Heet are inexhaustible, the Babylonians had
nearer at hand a much better cement, the discovery
of which was a very obvious one ; and the richness
of the ruins in nitre, is some proof that lime cement
was the one most generally employed. The pre-


64
on one side of which the bitumen bubbles up, and
on the other oil of naphtha; for these two productions
are always found in the same situation. That kind
of petroleum, called by the Orientals Mumia, is also
found here, but of a quality greatly inferior to that
brought from Persia. Strabo, who calls the naphtha
liquid bitumen, says its flame cannot be extinguished
by water, and relates a cruel experiment made by
Alexander, to prove the truth of this, the result of
which however is in direct contradiction of it.. I
believe it is Diodorus alone wo asserts that bitumen
flows out of the ground at Babylon. Herodotus
positively says it was brought from Heet, and Strabo
generally that it is produced in Babylonia. I was
unable to discover any traces of it in the vicinity of
Hilla, except on the testimony of a Jew, who told
me he believed it might be found in the Desert. It
is at present used for caulking boats, coating cis-
terns, baths, and other places that are to remain in
contact with water. The fragments of it scattered
over the ruins of Babylon are black, shining, and
brittle, somewhat resembling pit-coal in substance
and appearance ; the Turks call it Ziſt, and the
Arabs Kier or Geer ( ).
There are three kinds of calcareous earth found
in most situations in the western desert between Ba-
bylon, Heet, and Ana. The first is called Noora,


65
and is a white powder particularly abundant at Heet
and Ana. Mixed with ashes it is used as a coating for
the lower parts of walls, in baths and other places
liable to damps. The second is also found in powder,
mixed with indurated pieces of the same substance,
and round pebbles ; it is called by the Turks Karej,
and by the Arabs Jus'; it is very plentiful between
Hilla and Felugiah, is the common cement of the
country, and composes the mortar which is found
in the ruins of Babylon. The third species, called
Borak, is a substance resembling gypsum, and is
found in large craggy lumps of an earthy appear-
ance externally, but being burnt it forms an excel-
lent white-wash or plaster. I have seen some mor-
tar in Babylon of a reddish appearance, as if clay
had been mixed with it; and there yet remains an-
other kind of cement to be spoken of, viz. pure clay
or mud; the use of which is exclusively confined to
the sun-dried brick; and it is indeed a very imper-
fect cement, notwithstanding the great thickness in
which it is laid on. At the Mujelibè, layers of reeds
are found on the top of every layer of mud-cement,
between it and the layer of brick: the use of the
reeds (which are the common growth of the marshes)
is not very obvious, unless it be supposed that they
were intended to prevent the bricks sinking un-
equally and too speedily into the thick layer of mud:


66
they are in a surprisingly perfect state, and hand-
fulls of them are easily drawn out. I never saw
any reeds employed where any other kind of ce-
ment was used. Herodotus asserts that the tops of
them are intermixed with the bitumen, and I have
certainly observed on pieces of bitumen,impressions
like short pieces of reed, though not a fragment of
the reeds themselves (if there ever were any) re-
main ; and from subsequent observations I am in-
clined to think such appearances might proceed,
from other causes. In the mud cement of the walls
of Ctesiphon there are layers of reeds as at Baby-
lon, and I believe they are also to be found among
the ruins of Seleucia, the builders of which would
naturally have copied the peculiarities of the Baby-
lonian architecture, and have been imitated in their
turn by their Parthian neighbours.
I have thus given a faithful account of my obser-
vations at Babylon, and offer it merely as a prelude
to further researches, which repeated visits to the
same spot may enable me to make. My wish to be
minutely accurate, has, I fear, often betrayed me
into tediousness; but the subject is a curious, per-
haps an important one, as it may tend to illustrate
several passages in the sacred and profane writers.
Instead of being disappointed at the difficulty of
ascertaining any part of the original plan of Baby-


67
lon, from its present remains, we ought rather to be
astonished at the grandeur of that city which has
left such traces, when we consider that it was nearly
a heap of ruins two thousand years ago ; that im-
mense cities have been built out of its materials,
which still appear to be inexhaustible ; and that the
capital of the Abassides, which we know to have been
one of the most extensive and magnificent cities of
comparatively modern times, has left but a few con-
fused vestiges, which are scarcely elevated above the
level of the Desert, and which in a few years the
most inquiring eye will be unable to discover.
THE END.


LONDON:
PRINTED BY RICHARD AND ARTHUR TAYLOR
E
FLAMMAM.


lc
1
「IRITISLAN口
​135g
《田 ​WITH MY-
HAKE WHO一自
​HK)
;
12
1-
>
->
T
shina
1.三
​《
HITAH-
今日
​4-
MSN
5 17
1-
-
第1 章
​20
FEAT
Engraved by Sy Hall.14.Bury Str. Bloomsby

don Published as the Act directs, Sept:197818, by Longman Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Paternoster Row.
London, Publis





**
*
*18分
​以
​巧只缺了非教学动
​Engraved by sy Hall
London, Published as the Act directs. Sept. 1.818. by Longman, Hurst. Rees Orme & Brown. Paternoster Row.






KEE 総理
​“明日​《
画出时
​10
|
|
|
Engraved by Sy Hall.


1818, by Longman , Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Paternoster Row.


London, Published as the Act directs, Sept!





PRINTED BY RICHARD AND ARTHUR TAYLOR, SHOB LANE


ADVERTISEMENT.
My first very imperfect Memoir made its
appearance in an oriental literary Journal,
published in Vienna, and called the Mines de
l'Orient. So numerous were the typographi-
cal errors of that edition, that my Essay was
in many places scarcely recognisable even by
myself. My friends were of opinion that it
ought to be republished in England; and an
edition of it was printed from the Mines de
l'Orient, which was received with indulgence
by the Public, notwithstanding the many in-
accuracies which I fear must have been re-
tained. I have not seen a copy of the English
edition, and therefore in the following Memoir
I beg to be understood as referring entirely
to the original German one.






PLATE HI.
Southern face of the Birs Nemroud.
Northern face of the Birs Nemroud.
ELLER
H
East face of the Kasr.
West face of the Kasr.
AB
North face of the kasr.
A.The mounds of Amran,
B.The Tomb of Amran ibn Ali.
C. The Embankment. Uns con-
-taining human bones were
found at the foot of this part
of it, close to the water.
D. The Ground gained from the
River by its having altered
its course.
D.Read so
(Marked also D. in the Plan.)
View of the Embankment (B & Kin the Plan) together with part of the
Eastern Ruins from the opposite bank of the River.






PLATE 11.
Northern face of the Mujelibe.
Southern face of the Mujelibe,
Eastern face of the Mujelibè.
Western face of the Mujelibè.
Western face of the Birs Nemroud.
Eastern face of the Bir.S Nemroud.



INT
UMRU
n
Nuwm
WWW
WWW
WWW
WARU
MIN
WU
SSRUUSURA
UURIMINISTRI
SKINKED
PLATE I
Wc
HEMIK
ID
Moll
WINN
13331110
on tus side the rack
min
M
RUU330
ADRID
AUDRIUS
w
WRXURRUS
KUM
the two little mounds
MO
10+
ANA
NO
gt
12
W
at
M
X
ANAS
WANAM
WIDERE TIL
WW
RE
N"
The Ruins of Babylon on the East Bank of the Euphrates.
Well
BER
ell
AEG
W
Scale of a British Standard Mile.
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 60 yards
AD
Aarath ibn
NHA
She
ANIEM
WWE
W
TI
RIT
WILOMETRO
WA
WWW
U
www
SMPN
SUS
HEN
(IKI
CRUNCHINI
M
MUNDI
HOW
V100
WADA
BMW
MINUNDA
RU
VITIN
TARUH
361
WIHMAN
KUMULATORI
NAMUN
SAINS
SURI
BERRIESE
KAN WORM
2011
SHOWRURE
RIN
2
WWW
WATOTO
MESKRUIN
SUSAN
RARANTI
WWW
WWWWUWI
WWWWWW
BILIRANI
O
IUNI
M
WARN
IRII
M
REST
INI
N
IIIIIIIIIII
TIRTIUM
WON
Wall
Im
WALDO
MWWWW
WANNES
D Pead sc.
SIMON
Kami
SKA
Inc
INIMUM
M
RSS
BOLS
min
MER
RAS
13
WA
BRUARI
WINNING
W
ITO


MEMOIR
.
ON
THE RUINS OF BABYLON.
ON my first visit to Babylon I was struck by the
want of accuracy in the accounts of all travellers
who had visited that celebrated spot. The ruins
appeared to me to merit a very minute description
and delineation ; but such a work it was evident
would occupy much more time, and require more
extensive information, than I was then in possession
of; and I deferred the accomplishment of it to a
more favourable conjuncture. In the meantime I
was anxious to give some notion of the real state of
the ruins: I therefore drew up a short account,
accompanied by an illustrative sketch, which I ven-
tured to offer to the public, principally with a view
to excite the attention of the learned, and induce
ew
B


P
them to transmit to me such remarks as might enable
me to accomplish my design in a more perfect man-
ner than I could hope to do by my own unassisted
efforts. It was no part of my object at that stage
of the inquiry to bring forward my own specula-
tions, had I then been qualified to do so; and I
purposely abstained from any remarks which did
not tend to throw light on my account of the
ruins, and stimulate the attention without mislead-
ing the judgement of those who applied themselves
to the subject. But having hitherto sufficiently se-
parated observation from opinion, I now venture to
lay before the public the result of better informa-
tion and more matured opinions. I have been more
particularly induced to enter into a discussion on
the correspondence between the accounts of the
ancient historians and the ruins I visited, by a pa-
per written by Major Rennel*, professedly “to vin-
dicate the truth and consistency of ancient history,
as well as his own account of Babylon in the Geo-
graphy of Herodotus," as he “conceives my former
statements to be at variance with commonly received
* Remarks on the Topography of Ancient Babylon, suge
gested by the recent Observations and Discoveries of Claudius
James Rich, Esq., communicated to the Society of Antiqua.
ries by Major Rennel ;-from the Archäologia, London, 1816,
pp. 22.


down in my plan, which render it evident that the
river could not have run in that direction. These
mounds must consequently be referred to a town of
more recent construction, of whose existence Ma-
jor Rennel himself acknowledges we have no other
evidence.
I shall now state in general terms what I have to
object to this theory. None of the ancients say on
which side of the river the Tower of Belus stood.
The circumstance of there having been two palaces
in Babylon is extremely questionable. There are
no traces whatever on the spot, of any such change
in the river as Major Rennel imagines. The sup-.
position of the existence of a more recent town,
merely for the purpose of getting rid of the diffi-
culty, cannot be allowed in the absence of all histo-
rical and traditional evidence, when the appearance
of the ruins themselves is decidedly against it.
And finally, the descriptions of the ancient histo-
rians may be reconciled with the present remains,
without having recourse to any such conjectures.
-When a person ventures to disagree with such a
writer as Major Rennel, it behoves him to state his
reasons very particularly. I shall therefore proceed
to develop the opinions which I have just stated.
Before we enter on any topographical inquiry in
which we have to reconcile observation with his-


tory,-if we consider how different are the talents
required for narrative and description, how nume-
rous are the sources of error, and how devoid the an-
cients were of that minute accuracy and patient re-
search which are required in this critical age, -SO
far from taking their accounts of places and posi-
tions in the strictest and most literal sense of which
they are susceptible, we, might allow them a very
considerable latitude, without calling their general
veracity in question. Instead of making this allow-
ance, however, writers have too frequently seemed
to expect a precision from the old historians in their
accounts of very remote places, which could only
be reasonably looked for in the treatises of professed
topographers; and to have tried the very scanty
accounts we have of many ancient places, by a
stricter standard than many modern descriptions
would bear. We naturally wish to make the most
of what we possess in the smallest quantity, and to
seize with avidity on a single word which may help
us through the obscurity of antiquity, or enable us
to establish a favourite hypothesis. The testimony
of the ancients who have been on the spot must of
course be placed far above those who merely copy
others, whose statements, however high their rank
in literature may be, must be received with much
caution; and when their descriptions in either case
.
se


lo
there, and since that time, with the same result. I
have long been accustomed to observe the changes
in the courses of rivers, from having lived ten years
on the banks of one subject to them in a most re-
markable degree. The Euphrates is by no means
so variable: the lowness of its banks affording a
facility for its discharging the superabundance of
its waters by the means of canals and inundations,
renders it not liable to a complete alteration of
its course. The strong embankment built by the
Babylonian monarchs was intended to prevent the
overflow, not to secure its running in one chan-
nel; and ever since the embankment was ruined,
the river has expended itself in periodical inun-
dations. This is the case in many parts of its
progress; for instance, at Feluja, the inundation
from whence covers the whole face of the country
as far as the walls of Bagdad ; and the river itself
has, to the best of my information, constantly flowed
at that place in the same channel, without any va-
riation. At Hilla, notwithstanding the numerous
canals drawn from it, when it rises it overflows
many parts of the western desert; and on the east
it insinuates itself into all the hollows and more le-
vel parts of the ruins, converting them into lakes
and morasses. This will sufficiently account for
many appearances in those ruins, which might sur-


11
Ca
prise those who had not adverted to the circum-
stance. The Khezail district at such times is in
many parts completely inundated; and still further
down, since a dyke which used to be kept up at a
considerable expense has been broken, the river
flows over the country as far as Bussora. But in
no part of the Euphrates have I ever been able to
discover traces of its having altered its course. On
the other hand, the Tigris, which is much more rapid
than the Euphrates, has none of these regulating
valves to draw off its superfluous water, which con-
sequently breaks down its own banks. This is the
case during its course through the upper and middle
parts of the Pashalik, where it is confined between
high banks, and cannot be expended in inundations,
or drawn off by canals; but in the southern districts,
where it runs through the lowest part of the Beni
Lam country, the banks are level, there are many
drains, and it overflows readily. In those places it is
not subject to the variations of channel which cha-
racterize it during the earlier part of its course.
Having shown that the first part of Major Rennel's
theory is contradicted by a survey of the ground, I
have to state the reasons which induce me equally
to disagree with him in his second conjecture;
This part of the subject requires to be treated at
some length.


12
As some of the ruins now seen would obstruct
the course of the Euphrates, supposed by Major
Rennel, he removes this difficulty by referring them
to another town. “ The whole of the remains visi-
ble in the form of mounds, &c. do not belong ex-
clusively to the ancient city, but in part to a subse-
quent establishment, not recorded in history, and
perhaps of a date previous to the Mahometan con-
quest.” (p. 5.) To this assumption I object,
• 1. The mounds or ruins rejected by Major Ren-
nel differ in no respect from those he admits; they
appear to form a part of the plan which they help
to explain ; they are connected with, or dependent
on, the primitive mounds; and no sort of evidence
can be drawn from their appearance or composi-
tion to call in question their being of equal anti-
quity.
2. It is granted by all, that the mounds of the
Kasr and Amran, with some others among them,
are a part of ancient Babylon. It appears very
improbable that any one should attempt to build on
such masses of decayed edifices, even in their pre-
sent state, when they have doubtless diminished,
and subsided into much greater solidity than at the
period Major R. assigns to his city. If ever a town
existed in this neighbourhood, it certainly would
not have been among or upon these heaps of rub-


Rennel receives the eastern ruins as the Teme
ple and Palaces. Now it is clear that the regular
distribution of streets could never have been ob-
served in or near these buildings; and so far from
excluding the boundary wall on account of its not
falling in with it, had any symptoms of such an
arrangement been observed here, it would have
been reason sufficient to pronounce at once that
the eastern ruins could neither represent the Pa-
laces nor the Tower.—After all, I find a difficulty
in believing that the whole area of Babylon was
divided into regular compartments by the intersec-
tion of lines of houses at right angles, like the sur-
face of a chess-board. This savours strongly of
an imaginary arrangement. It might have been
nearly true of some divisions or quarters, yet I
would nowhere youch for its mathematical accu-
racy. The area of Babylon, we have every reason
to believe, was at all times very far from being
thickly built on; a very considerable proportion of
it was occupied by cultivation ; and the care with
which the river was fortified with an embattled
wall and brazen gates, guarding each bank through
the whole extent of the town, seems indicative of
the scantiness of the houses, even on the river;
which seems further illustrated by the ease with
which Cyrus turned the river, unknown to the in-


16
lity of such a building having been erected on a
heap of rubbish. But it does not stand on the
mound which I have named after it, and which is
allowed to be Babylonian; it is inclosed within the
mass, and has been covered by it. The rubbish
has only been cleared off its top part; and its side
walls, though not perfectly laid open, yet are seen
to reach down very far below the general surface
of the mound, as my drawing shows. This build-
ing is indisputably connected with walls and frag-
ments similar to it, to be seen in various parts of
the same mound, quite in its heart, and at a great
depth, and which have been discovered in piercing
and hollowing out the heaps to find bricks :--some
of these walls are, I believe, on a level with the
plain itself. I cannot therefore doubt that the walls
are coeval with the mound itself by which they
have been covered; or at least erected before the
buildings whose ruins formed the mound had crum-
bled into rubbish (for it is not pretended to refer
every ruin which remains of ancient Babylon to
the age of Nebuchadnezzar); and if they are con-
demned, the mound itself, consequently, and all the
mounds or heaps attached to it, cannot be admitted
to be a part of ancient Babylon.-I shall in the se-
quel have occasion to return to this subject.. .
· As Major Rennel appears generally inclined to


17
receive so literally the statements of the ancients,
even of Diodorus, it is a little surprising that he
has not adverted to the dimensions assigned by that
writer to the Palaces : he would have seen, that so
far from warranting the belief of the eastern ruins
comprising the remains of all the public edifices of
Babylon (viz, the new Palace of 60 stades in cir-
cumference, the old one of 30 stades, and the Tem-
ple of Belus of 8 stades), it is evident that they will
only answer to the new Palace, with its Acropolis.
It is true, Diodorus places his largest palace on the
west: but an author who confounds the Tigris with
the Euphrates may without injustice be suspected
of a topographical inaccuracy of this nature. (C.)
Indeed, whether we do or do not admit the autho-
rity of Diodorus, the best conclusion to be drawn
from the appearance and plan of these ruins is, that
they represent the whole of the royal precincts, in-
cluding the hanging gardens*. The ruins of the
Palace of Babylon might well resemble in every re-
spect those we see on the eastern bank of the Eu-
* We should form a very incorrect potion of the residence of
an eastern monarch, if we imagined it was one building which
in its decay would leave a single mound, or mass of ruins.
Such establishments always consist of a fortified inclosure, the
area of which is occupied by many buildings of various kinds,
without symmetry or general design, and with large vacant
spaces between them.


18
phrates : the mound called by Major Rennel "the
rampart of new Babylon” will answer perfectly to
the outer wall of the Palace, for which its extent is
by no means too great; and thus all difficulties im-
mediately vanish, without the necessity of turning
the river or building a new town. This could
hardly have failed striking Major Rennel also, had
he not set out by assuming the Mujelibè to be the
Tower of Belus; which, if the supposition of the
Palace having been situated here be just, must cer-
tainly be looked for in a different direction--each
being said to be seated within its own division of
the city. In fact, there is not the slightest reason
to believe that the Tower was situated on or near
the river, though we may safely infer that such a
stream must have been taken advantage of in pla-
cing the Palace. Had the Palace and Tower been
so very near each other, it would probably have
been remarked by Herodotus, whose authority Ma-
jor Rennel is willing to abandon in this particular.
From what I have before said, it may be seen that
I cannot receive the Mujelibè as the Tower of Be-
lus, even independent of its position.
Having said so much of the general state of the
eastern ruins, I have but a few words to add con-
cerning the particular parts of them, about which
Major Rennel seems to think I have not been suf-
rel


19
da
ficiently explicit in my former Memoir. I was
fearful of becoming tedious by expatiating on mis-
shapen heaps of rubbish, which are much better
understood by a drawing, except like the mound
of the Kassr--they happen to contain within their
general mass some peculiarity worthy of remark.
It is on this account, and not because I had not
examined them, that I passed the little heaps which
lie between the Kassr and the Mujelibè without
particular mention, after having satisfied myself
that they contained nothing which required one.
They are in fact nothing more than low heaps, or
traces of building extending in that direction, of
no elevation or determined form, precisely as I have
laid them down in my plan. Major Rennel seems,
however, to consider them as requisite to the for-
mation of his theory. He calls them the “north-
east mounds," in the sketch of the site of ancient
Babylon (drawn chiefly from the information con-
tained in my Memoir) which he has prefixed to his
“Remarks;" has assigned them a place, form, and
magnitude to which they are by no means entitled*,
and conjectures them to be the ruins of the least
and oldest of the palaces mentioned by Diodorus.
. I observe some other alterations from my plan,
* Vide the Sketch prefixed to his “Remarks,” &c. (D.)
C 2


20
which are not wholly immaterial : especially an
opening between the south-west angle of the mound
called the Kassr, and the arm which ought to
connect it with the north-west angle of that of
Amran. I suppose I have to attribute these to the
person who engraved the plan for the English edi-
tion of my Memoir, as Major Rennel would doubt-
less have noticed the alterations, had they come
from himself. But there is another error, which I
have to attribute to my own want of precision
The mounds placed to the right and left of the
Mohawil road by Major Rennel should be by no
means so frequent, or of such magnitude: he was
probably deceived by the looseness of my expres-
sion, that “the whole country between Mohawil
and Hillah exhibits at intervals traces of building."
But there should have been none at all south of
Jumjuma, or between the ruins laid down in my
plan and the town of Hilla.
Of the mound of Amran I was not aware that it
was possible to say any thing more, after having de-
scribed its form and general appearance, as it of-
fers no peculiarity meriting attention. It is com-
posed, like the rest, of earth, or rubbish formed by.
the decomposition of bricks and other materials.
The canal of Mohawil Major Rennel seems in-
clined to think may have been the ditch of Baby-


24
ion.
within that district; and its having been a bishopric
is in the East no proof of its sizemeither a whole
district or a very insignificant village may have en-
joyed this honour; and we see that at one period
the bishopric of Al Neel was united with two others.
I have myself no doubt that Al Neel was always, as
it is now, the name of a district, and that it con-
tained no remarkable place; in which belief I am
further justified by the information obligingly com-
municated to me by H. H. the Pasha, from the re-
gister office of Bagdad. But as some people may
possibly differ with me, I shall consider it also un-
der a different point of view, and endeavour to an-
ticipate every objection.
I think it will readily be conceded that Al Neel
-supposing it to have been a town named after
the canal-could not have been a place of any mag-
nitude: or, to speak more precisely, there is not
the slightest reason to believe it could have been as
large as Hilla. We have no records which give it
any high antiquity; nor is there any necessity for
placing it at the mouth of the canal. We have in-
deed examples of the contrary in Nahrouan, Naher
Malcha, and many other places. We thus come at
some important conclusions. Whatever ruins the
town of Neel—if ever such a place existed-may
be believed to have left, we have no positive reason


25
for supposing them to occupy this spot : and a place
even much larger and more important than Hilla
could not leave remains in any degree resembling,
either in magnitude or composition, those we now see
on the eastern bank of the Euphrates. Were it neces-
sary, innumerable instances might be adduced from
the ruins of well-known places in this neighbourhood
in support of this assertion: and to show that the east-
ern ruins must be wholly the remains of public build-
ings, the large cities of Ctesiphon and Seleucia will
suffice;-neither of them has leftvestigesof morethan
their walls (if weexcept the Tank Kesra), and indeed
those of Seleucia have almost totally disappeared.
I will go further, and state my opinion that,
even should it be imagined by any one that there
was a town on the north side of the canal and
at the base of the Mujelibè (the only spot where
it could have been situated), and that it was con-
siderable enough to have had a castle the size of
that curious ruin,- this supposition makes no dif- .
ference whatever in the opinion I have expressed.
I will take for an example the modern town of Ar-
bil, which has an artificial mount at least as large as
the Mujelibè, and much higher. This mount, which
is of the highest antiquity, and probably existed in
the days of Alexander, has been crowned by a suc-
cession of castles in different ages. The present is


28
on them in the cuneiform character, only found in
Babylon and Persepolis, are all invariably placed in
a similar manner, viz. with their faces or written
sides downwards. This argues some design in
placing them, though what that might have been it
is now impossible to say. It, however, proves suf-
ficiently that the buildings must have been erected
when the bricks were made, and the very ancient
and peculiar form of characters on them in use.
When these bricks are found in more modern con-
structions, as in Bagdad and Hilla, they are of
course placed indifferently, without regard to the
writing on them. In the greatest depth in the ex-
cavations at the Kassr, at the subterraneous passage
or canal, I have myself found small pieces of baked
clay covered with cuneiform writing, and some-
times with figures indisputably Babylonian :-these
shall be described when I come to speak of the Ba-
bylonian antiques. Had the ruins been more res
cent than is here presumed, these inscriptions would
not have been found in this order and manner, and
we should in all probability have found others in
the character or language then in use. Thus, had
the town been Mahometan or Christian, we might
reasonably expect to meet with fragments of Coufic
or Stranghelo. . There is another equally remark-
able circumstance in these ruins, and which is al-


32
ancients had actually assigned a position to the
Tower irreconcileable with the Birs, it would be
more reasonable to suppose that some error had
crept into their accounts, than to reject this most re-
markable of all the ruins. But there is no necessity
for either supposition. From the view of the an-
cient historians I have taken in the foregoing part
of this Memoir, it will appear that none of them
has positively fixed the spot where the Tower of
Belus stood; and if we receive the dimensions of
Babylon assigned by the best of the ancient histo-
rians-himself an eye-witness--both the Birs and
the eastern ruins will fairly come within its limits.
Against receiving his testimony we have only our
own notions of probability. We have reduced the
dimensions merely because they do not accord with
our ideas of the size of a city: but we know Baby-
lon to have been rather an inclosed district than a
city; and there can of course be no hesitation in
abandoning less accurate evidence, and receiving
the statement of Herodotus, if there be any traces
on the spot to justify it.
The whole height of the Birs Nemroud above
the plain to the summit of the brick wall is two
hundred and thirty-five feet (235). The brick wall
itself which stands on the edge of the summit, and
was undoubtedly the face of another stage, is thirty-


42
In the same work, p. 337, Major Rennel, in giving an
account of Babylon according to the notions of Herodo-
tus, says: “ In the centre of each division of the city is a
circular space, surrounded by a wall; in one of these
stands the royal palace, which fills a large and strongly
defended space : the Temple of Jupiter occupies the
other.” And yet in the “Remarks" he objects to the
inclosure which I suppose may have contained the Pa-
lace, on account of its being circular. Neither is the de-
scription he has given from Herodotus, as quoted above,
reconcileable with what he says a little further on, on
the authority of Diodorus,--that the Palace was a square
of 14 mile. (See Geog. of Herod. p. 354.) But the truth
is, that neither does Herodotus mention the circle, nor
Diodorus the square. There is certainly no reason to
believe that the Palace was of the latter form.
(D.) Page 19.
I must here remark that Tauk Kesra, the palace of
the Sassanian kings, is not built of Babylonian bricks, as
has been supposed; and that the masonry is strikingly
inferior to that of Babylon...
(E.) Page 30.
: The same note to the curious and learned Memoir of
M. de Sainte Croix contains a discussion concerning the
latitude and longitude of Hilla, and its distance from
Bagdad, by M. Beauchamp. Niebuhr gives the lati-
tude of Hilla 32° 28', which would make its distance
from Bagdad amount to 213 leagues of 25 to a degree.


45
just read the passage in the Geography of Herodotus re-
lating to it. This I am aware is a mode of inquiry
which sometimes in the East leads to error: but what-
ever may be thought of the name, I have no doubt con-
cerning the ruins at Jerbouiya, which I have heard de-
scribed by several persons who had visited them. Should
any one be tempted to imagine, from the similarity of
names, and the conjecture that Boursa is Borsippa, that
the ruins at the Birs Nemroud are those of the sacred
Tower of the Chaldeans, I can only appeal to the ap-
pearance of the Birs itself. To suppose that the Birs is
Borsippa, and not Babylon, would be to believe that
there existed a Temple and Tower at the former place
perfectly resembling the gigantic monument of Belus,
both in form and proportions; and that the Temple of
Borsippa has resisted the hand of time, which has obli-
terated that of Babylon.
I must not finish this Memoir without correcting two
inaccuracies of my former one. Tahmasia was, I find,
built by Shah Tahmas, and not by Nadir Shah, as I was
inaccurately informed at Hilla ; and the Khan half way
between Bagdad and Hilla is not called Khan Bir Yu-
nus, or Jonas's Well, but Bir-un-nous (incorrectly for
nisf), i.e. The Well of the Half-way.


49
to the public, are to be found partly in Prof. Heeren's
work on the Politics, Intercourse, and Commerce
of the principal Nations of Antiquity*, and partly
in the fourth and fifth volumes of the Mines de
l'Orient; but it is to be hoped that he will soon be
prevailed upon to communicate to the world his va.
luable labours in a separate and more perfect form.
Dr. Grotefend, who professes to be rather the
decypherer than the translator of the cuneiform in-
scriptions, and who engages merely to open the way
to those whose attention has been much devoted to
the study of the ancient languages of Persia, has
however succeeded in translating some of the in-
scriptions on the ruins of Persepolis, and one from
those of Pasargadæ. He observes that there are
three varieties of those inscriptions, distinguished
from each other by the greater complication of the
characters formed by the radical signs of a wedge
(or arrow) and an angle. Each inscription is re-
peated in all the three species. The first or simplest
species decyphered by Dr. Grotefend is in Zend,
the language of Ecbatana; and there are grounds
for believing that the remaining ones are translations
* Ideen über die Politik, den Verkehr und den Handel der
vornehmsten Völker der alten Welt, by Prof. A. H. L. Heeren,
3d édition, Gottingen, 1815,-a very interesting work, which
ought to be translated into English. .


51
disuse upon Alexander's conquest, when neither the
Persians nor Babylonians had any monuments to
erect or events to record. The native princes who
wrested the throne of Persia from his feeble succes-
sors adopted the Greek language and character in
their coins and inscriptions; and all recollection of
the cuneiform writing must have perished during
the long period in which they held the sceptre of
Iran. The Sassanians, the professed restorers of
the ancient rites and usages of Persia, could not
therefore have had it in their power to recall the use
of this obsolete mode of writing; and accordingly
we find the monuments and coins of that dynasty
inscribed with a character having an analogy with
the Hebrew, Phenician, or Palmyrene, which has
been decyphered by the first orientalist of any age
or country, in whose excellent work, “Mémoires sur
diverses antiquités de la Perse," the fullest informa-
tion on the Sassanian antiquities may be found.
The foregoing observations relate to the Perse-
politan inscriptions. With respect to those of Ba-
bylon, Dr. Grotefend, from the scarcity of speci-
mens, is yet only acquainted with two kinds; and
he has not attempted to decypher them, though he
has furnished some useful tables of comparison for
those who may be inclined to attempt the task*.
* See Mines de l'Orient, vol. iv. and v..
E 2


52
Adopting his principles of classification, I shall di-
vide the Babylonian inscriptions into three species,
in the order of their complication. I have attempted
to account for the coexistence of three different
writings and languages in the Persepolitan inscrip-
tions. For the reason of there being three species of
Babylonian writing, of which one only corresponds
with those of Persepolis, I cannot offer any probable
conjecture. They are never found together, or iz
the same antiques, as in Persia; but the supposition
of different ages will not solve the difficulty. A strict
comparison of the different kinds will show whether
or no they express different languages *..
No. 1 is a black stone of an irregular shape (in
part broken and defaced), about one foot in length
and 74 inches in breadth. The figures on it, a and b,
have been supposed to represent the zodiac of the
Babylonians: c is all that is now legible of the in
scription, which once covered the lower part of the
* In the moment of sending off this Memoir I saw a letter
from Dr. Grotefend, by which it appears that that learned and
ingenious person, from a close examination of some specimens
which have recently been communicated to him, is of opinion
that the three species of Babylonian writing here spoken of are
only varieties of different modes of writing the same characters,
and that there is in fact but one real kind of Babylonian cunei-
form writing. Those who consider the importance of the un.
dertaking will rejoice to learn that Dr. Grotefend is prosecuting
his inquiries with unremitting ardour.