ASIA. few pieces. Fragments of alabaster vessels are also CHAP. III. found here, together with fine earthenware, marble, and great quantities of polished tiles, the glazing and colouring of which present all the freshness of a modern material. Along the western and northern face of the mound are detached portions of a wall, which probably composed the piers or buttresses of the terraces, attached to the celebrated hanging gardens described by Diodorus, and which, according to Curtius, had the appearance of a forest.' Amram hill. Remains of ancient ramparts. About 2400 feet from Kasr is the Amram hill. This is a triangular mass, of which the south-western side is 4200 feet, the eastern 3300 feet, and the northern 2500 feet. The entire heap is broken, like that of the Kasr, into deep caverned ravines and long winding furrows, from the number of bricks that have been taken away. Its former state or designation it is impossible to determine. At present it is a shapeless assemblage of bricks, mortar, and cement, where the foot of the traveller plunges at every step into dust and rubbish. Several smaller mounds are scattered around these three enormous masses, and the whole space is surrounded by several lofty corresponding ridges or ramparts, which form two sides of a great triangle, of which the river Euphrates is the base. The length of this base is three miles and three quarters; that of the northern rampart is two miles and three quarters, and that of the southern two miles and a half. Within the triangle, and between the great mounds and the angle formed by the northern and southern ramparts, run two wall lines of defence, parallel with each other, and also parallel River em- with the base formed by the river. On the other bankment. side of the great mounds that part of the Euphrates which forms the base of the triangle is defended by a wall enclosure, composed of sun-dried bricks, and rising in some places 60 feet above the bed of the river. Here most probably were fixed the splendid 1 It is to these ruins that the name of Kasr is properly applied, though Rich and Porter have applied the name to the entire mound, river-gates of brass which are described by Herodotus. ASIA. CHAP. III. Western Euphrates. Thus far we have noticed the ruins on the eastern bank of the Euphrates. Herodotus however, as bank of the we shall presently see, describes Babylon as a square of fifteen miles every way, and cut in two by the river, the tower of Belus being on one side and the royal palace on the other. Rennell accordingly identifies the tower of Belus with Mujelibe, and the royal palace with Kasr, and supposes that the Euphrates anciently flowed in another channel between these mounds. This theory has been now completely refuted. Not the slightest trace of any such change in the course of the Euphrates could be discovered by either Rich or Porter. Taking it therefore for granted that the mound Kasr represents the royal palace, we must cross the river before we can find the temple of Belus, and here it will be necessary to take a preliminary survey of the present face of the country. tered The reader must imagine himself on the west- Small scatern bank of the Euphrates, and opposite the Kasr mounds. and Amram hills. Here the ground is level, low, and marshy, and contains no such mounds as those we have described. A few hillocks are to be seen in the neighbourhood of a village named Anana. There is also a ridge of earth about fourteen feet high, which runs due north for about 300 yards, and then forming a right angle due east, takes that direction till it reaches the river. At its termination the courses of sun-dried bricks are distinctly visible, but this is the only trace of an embankment corresponding to that on the opposite shore. How this western embankment came to be destroyed whilst the opposite one was preserved we cannot conjecture. The fact however is certain, and this circumstance may have contributed to the preservation of the eastern mounds, whilst those on the western bank, unprotected by a corresponding dyke, have been mostly swept away by inundations of the river. S ASIA. CHAP. III. Birs Nim roud, the tower of Babel and temple of. Belus. Its extreme antiquity. The reader must now be carried a considerable distance.' Nine miles south-west of Mujelibe, and six miles in a straight line from Anana, is a huge oblong mass, 200 feet high, and more than 2000 feet in circumference at its base.2 The Arabs call it Birs Nimroud, or Nimrod's tower. It is composed of fine bricks baked in the furnace, and on the western side rises from the plain in one stupendous, though irregular, pyramidal hill. Rennell, who considers that Herodotus has exaggerated the dimensions of Babylon, will not include this extraordinary ruin within the limits of the city. Modern travellers, however, have been able to trace three out of the eight stories described by Herodotus as belonging to the great temple or tower of Belus, and thus to clear his statements respecting the extraordinary extent of the city from the charge of hyperbole. The first story is about 60 feet high, cloven in the middle by a deep ravine, and intersected in all directions by furrows channelled by the successive rains of ages. The second stage springs out of the first in a steep and abrupt conical form. On the summit is a solid mass of tower-like ruin, 28 feet wide and 35 feet high, forming to all appearance the angle of some square building. The ground about the foot of the hill is now clear, but is again surrounded by walls which form an oblong square, and enclose numerous heaps of rubbish, probably once the dwellings of inferior deities, or of the priests and officers of the temple. Such then are the remains of the great tower of Belus, or Babel, in the land of Shinar. Its founda 1 Along the road between Anana and Birs Nimroud Porter found, at intervals of a mile or two, clear indications of the country having been formerly covered with buildings. About a mile and a half from Anana he reached a numerous and very conspicuous assemblage of mounds, of which the most considerable was 35 feet high. These he regarded as probably occupying the site of the second or older palace, which is not mentioned by Herodotus. We may here remind the reader that two palaces are described by Diodorus as having been built by Semiramis, one on the eastern and the other on the western bank. Herodotus only notices one, and seems to allude to the later palace built by Nebuchadnezzar, and which we identify with Kasr or the western palace. 2 Porter reckons it at 2082 feet: Rich at 2286 feet. 1 ASIA. tion must be carried back to the time of Nimrod, in the second century after the flood, when the nations CHAP. III. said, "Let us build a city and tower, and make us a name." Probably it was even then consecrated to the worship of Baal or the sun, and thus brought down the vengeance of Jehovah upon the builders; and whilst the descendants of Noah spread over the whole earth, it remained through successive ages a lasting monument of the guilty presumption of their idolatrous ancestors. This supposition in no way militates against the gradual additions and embellishments which it afterwards received, as the primeval temple of a national deity; neither can anything be argued against its high antiquity from bricks with inscriptions having been found amongst its ruins. It stands not only as a testimony to the veracity of Herodotus, but above all, as an awful confirmation of the truth of a far more ancient record of a divinely inspired author; a solemn relic of the first and mightiest fabric erected by the hand of man, fulfilling in the present day the sacred words of the prophet, "wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures." description a vast moat and We must now turn to the description of Herodotus. Herodotus's Babylon stood in an extensive plain, and formed a of Babylon: square, of which each side measured 120 stadia, square, proor about 15 English miles. It therefore occupied tected by a an area of about 225 square miles. On every wall. side was a wide and deep ditch full of water, and within that was a wall 50 royal cubits in breadth or thickness, and 200 royal cubits in height. The royal cubit was longer than the common one by the breadth of 3 digits. The wall was built in the following manner. The earth which was thrown up in digging the moat was at once converted into bricks, which were baked in kilns. Hot asphalt from the 3 4 2 Isa. xiii. 21. 3 i. 178. 1 Gen. xi. 4. Porter says that the embankments are made of sun-dried bricks. These were generally used in the formation of the interior of the masses of large foundations, whilst the exterior was faced with the more beauti ASIA. CHAP. III. Towers on the wall. river Is (or Hit) was used for cement, and wattled reeds were placed between the thirty bottom layers of bricks. The sides of the moat were built up first, and then the wall. On the top of the wall and along its whole extent were built houses or towers one story high; and between each of these towers sufficient space was left to turn a chariot with four One hun- horses. horses. There were also one hundred gates in the wall made entirely of brass, posts and lintels not excepted.1 dred brass gates. The city cut in twobythe the river brazen gates. The whole city was divided into two parts by the Euphrates, river Euphrates, which flowed through its centre; Walls along and walls of baked brick ran along the curvatures of banks with each bank, and thus united the two elbows of the outer wall. The city itself was full of houses three or four stories high, and arranged in straight streets intersecting one another. Where the streets descended towards the river there were brazen gates opening through the river-wall, and leading down Inner wall. to the water's edge. Beside the great city-wall already described, and which was the chief defence, there was another wall within it not much lower in height, but not so thick. The royal palace. Temple of Belus,-its eight towers and spiral ascent. In the middle of each division of the city a fortified building was erected. In the one was the royal palace, with a spacious and strong enclosure and brazen gates. In the other was the precinct of Be-. lus, which still existed in the time of Herodotus. This was a square building two stadia in length and breadth. In the midst of it rose a solid tower, one stadia in breadth and length, upon which were built seven towers, one upon the top of the other, so that there were eight in all. An ascent was on the outside and ran spirally round all the towers. Half way up there was a landing-place and seats for resting on. In the topmost tower was a spacious temple splendidly furnished, with a large couch and golden table, but containing no statues. ful bricks which were baked in the furnace, and which are described by Herodotus. |