could not, from their firm position, ascertain whether they had any inscription, though, from the written fragments lying about, I have no doubt they all bear the Babylonian character on their lower faces.

This tower-like ruin is pierced throughout with small square apertures, probably to preserve the fabric from the influence of damp; and instead of bitumen, a very thin layer of lime is spread between every single brick. On the summit of the pile, at the foot of the standing brickwork composing the tower, and on the north and western faces, are several immense brown and black masses of brickwork, more or less changed into a vitrified state, looking at a distance like so many edifices torn up from their foundations, being generally of an irregular form, and some resting on mere pivots.

Previous to examination, I took them for masses of black rock: some of these huge fragments measured twelve feet in height, by twenty-four in circumference, and from the circumstance of the standing brickwork having remained in a perfect state, the change exhibited in these is only accountable from their having been exposed to the fiercest fire, or rather scathed by lightning.*

**

The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burnt with fire."-Jer. ch. li, v. 58.

A little below these vitrified masses, on the north-west face of the ruin, fine brickwork is distinctly visible, each brick measuring one foot square, by four inches thick. There are also small square holes running deep into the pile, and in some places the bricks are greatly injured by exposure.

Still descending, there is a larger ruin of this kind of wall, which assumes an angular form. The bricks here are thirteen inches long, by four and one quarter thick, and are cemented together with a coarse layer of lime upwards of an inch deep, with an impression only of matting or straw. They are not level, but slope gently from the north face towards the east, and from the east face towards the south-a curious circumstance. Below this is a large square deep hole, through which the materials of the structure are very discernible, consisting principally of sun-dried bricks of similar dimensions as the kiln-baked.

These appear cemented together by mortar and bruised reeds, or chopped straw, an

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inch in thickness, and through this mass holes measuring two feet in height, by one in width, appear to penetrate to the heart of the building. Bitumen, which is found at the base of most of the ruined structures, is likewise discernible in this pile. None is to be found in the upper portion. This, it must be remarked, confirms the following passage of Herodotus,-"dia TeinnovTO δια τριηκοντα δομων πλινθου,” &c.

The whole summit and sides of this mountainous ruin are furrowed, by the weather and by human violence, into deep hollows and channels, completely strewed with broken bricks stamped with three, four, six, and seven lines of writing, stones, glass, tile, large cakes of bitumen, and petrified and vitrified sub

stances,

CHAPTER X.

Immense hill.-Koubbé, a Mahometan building.-Excavations made by the Arabs.-Urns, Alabaster Vase, &c.— Custom of Urn-burial.-Tombs described by Captain Basil Hall, Village of Ananah.-Situation of Babylon.-Pyramidal Ruin, called El Hamir.-Mode of Building.Characters on the Bricks.-Cylindrical Bricks.—Colossal bronze Figures.-Tomb of Ali Ibn Hassan.-Departure from Hillah.-Predictions of Isaiah.-The Author's arrival at Bagdad.

AN open quadrangular area extends for a considerable distance around the Birs, though its base is encircled by small ridges of mounded earth. I must not, however, pass unnoticed one immense hill scarcely a hundred yards distant from the eastern front of this stupendous fabric. It stretches away north and south to a breadth of 450 yards, when its extreme points