punishment, but sent many of the Babylonians, and for trifling causes, into slavery, and burnt the forum and some of the temples of Babylon, and demolished the best parts of the city. This happened about 130 years before Christ. CHAPTER VII. Description of Babylon by Herodotus.-Its great extent.Principal structures. The castellated palace.-Temple and tower of Belus.-Tunnel made by Semiramis under the Euphrates.-The Belidian and Cissian Gates.--Extraordinary number of gates to the city.-Account of the Tower of Belus.-Its elevation.-Chapels attached to it.— Sepulchre of Belus.-Large statue.-Height of the tower, its form, &c.-Conjectures respecting it.-Extensive ranges of walls. Supposed removal of ruins.-Concluding remarks on Babylon. ACCORDING to the description of this city by Herodotus, it stood in a large plain: the exterior of it was a square, surrounded by a lofty wall; and it was divided into two equal parts by the Euphrates, which passed through it. In the centre of one of these divisions, stood the temple and tower of Belus; in the London Published by Colburn & Bentley New Burlington Street, Oct.1829. GROUND PLAN of the Remains at & near BABYLON, by CAPTR. MIGNAN, Eng. by Sid Hall, EXTENT OF THE CITY. 139 We other, the spacious palace of the king. have already spoken of the extraordinary dimensions of the wall that surrounded Babylon; which are variously estimated at from 360 to 480 stades. The last of these numbers is (as we have seen) from Herodotus, whose measures, both of the enceinte and every other part, are enormous and improbable, occasioned, as we are ready to believe, by corruptions of the text. As an instance of the latter, he is made to say, that reeds were placed at every thirtieth course of brick work, in the Babylonian buildings; but modern travellers find them at every sixth, seventh, or eighth course, in Aggarkuf, appa- i rently a Babylonish building; and M. Beauchamp discovered them at every course, in some of the buildings in Babylon. We have therefore disregarded his calculations on the present occasion. Even the dimensions given by Strabo are beyond probability, as far as respects the height of the walls, which he reckons at fifty cubits, or seventy-five feet. The thickness, thirty-two |