HISTORY OF THE ARABS.

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Mamalukes, Turks, and all foreign enemies whatever.*

"Whoever were the conquerors of Asia, they were still unconquered, still continued their incursions, and preyed upon all alike. The Turks have now for several centuries been lords of the adjacent countries; but they have been so little able to restrain the depredations of the Arabs, that they have been obliged to pay them a sort of annual tribute for the safe passage and security of the pilgrims, who usually go in great companies to Mecca; so that the Turks have rather been dependent upon them, than they upon the Turks. And they still continue the same practices, and preserve the same superiority, if we may believe the concurrent testimony of modern travellers of all nations."+

*The Saracens began their conquests A.D. 622. Their empire was broken and divided A.D. 936. See Blair's Chronol. Tables, 33-39.

+ Newton on the Prophecies, vol. i. pp. 46-54.

CHAPTER IV.

City of Ctesiphon.-Extensive mound.-High wall.-Supposed canal.-Ancient remains.-Description of Tauk Kesra.-Search made for coins, &c.-Sack of the palace of Tauk Kesra by the Saracens. -Valuable spoils.-Rich carpet. Decay of Ctesiphon.-Tomb of Selman Pauk.Annual pilgrimage to it.-Mosque, tombs, &c.-Seleucia. -Ruins of the city.-Fragments of a bridge.-Sites of the two cities. Impediments in the way of research.-Calamities of Seleucia.-Bridge of boats over the Diala.— Arrival at Bagdad.

NOVEMBER 5th.-From daylight until noon, I have passed a succession of broken vases, made of baked clay; the inner portion of each was highly polished, of various colours, and some had human bones sticking to them. They were all close upon the left bank of the Tigris; and

EXTENSIVE MOUND.

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it is to be remarked, that whenever a running stream is in the vicinity of an ancient site, these earthen coffins are sure to be found on its bank.

Half an hour after, I crossed over to the right, or eastern bank, when I was on the site of Ctesiphon;* and immediately observed mounds, superficially covered with the same fragments and materials as I have already mentioned in describing those hillocks I had hitherto met with. This spot is called by the natives the "Garden of Kisra." The first mound, which was composed of furnace-burnt bricks as a foundation, and sun-dried, mixed up with chopped straw, for the superstructure, one course separated from another by irregular layers of reeds, extended from the bank of the river, in a northerly direction, for seven hun

* "The Parthians, in order to do by Seleucia as the Greeks, who built that place, had done by Babylon, built the city of Ctesiphon, within three miles of it, in the track called Chalonitis, in order to dispeople and impoverish it, though it is now the head city of the kingdom."- Plin. Nat. Hist. b. vi. c. 26.

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SUPPOSED CANAL.

dred and fifty feet; its height and thickness varied from thirty to thirty-six feet.

The elevation of the wall that edged from out this mound, on the margin of the bank, was forty feet. It then formed an angle, and stretched away North-west for eight hundred yards, when there was a breach, or gap, one hundred and thirty-five feet wide, probably once occupied by some grand gate of entrance. The wall, or rampart line, then re-commences, and runs on the same bearings for seven hundred and fifty yards more, when we came to another break, which appeared to be the bed of a canal, as the stratum, or channel, varied from fifteen to twenty feet deep; the breadth being one hundred and fifty yards, and therefore capable of admitting a very large body of water. The direction of the dry bed of this channel was North-east, and appeared to extend to an unbroken ridge of mounds running Northwest and South-east at the distance of eight or nine miles.

The high wall, already followed, embraces an extensive area, where no vestiges of former buildings exist, and runs to the verge of the river. Its summit and sides are covered with the remains of ancient building; and it is astonishing, that, after the lapse of so many centuries, these walls appear to have lost nothing of their regular construction.

From the bed of the canal, and a quarter of a mile to the North-west, over a space marked by memorials of the past, interspersed with patches of the camel thorn, stands the Tauk Kesra, a magnificent monument of antiquity,* surprising the spectator with the perfect state of its preservation, after having braved the warring elements for so many ages; without an emblem to throw any light upon its history; without proof, or character to be traced on any brick or wall.

This stupendous, stately fragment of ages

See Appendix, H.