1857.] Rtiins of the Tower of Bahel Discovered. W\ 



awful solitudes which surround Lake Van — a body of water six or 

 seven times larger than Lake Geneva. 



It is not strange that a gentleman who had seen and handled some 

 of the articles brought from the tower of Babel by Mr. Place, should 

 be excited, as he was ; he says: " In relation to archaiologieal news, I 

 take the liberty to inform you that I have just seen the oldest of the 

 oM world. Indeed, I do not know that I should be more surprised 

 by seeing fragments of the ark itself Fancy to yourself that I 

 have just touched and held in my hand, and turned and turned 

 a"'ain in every way a little morceau of the Tower of Bahel. This 

 trinklet of molded clay illustrated and baked by the sons of Noah, 

 has passed from the plain of Shinar to the chapel of St. Mesmin, 

 and is the fruit of the strokes of the hammer in the hand of Mr. 

 Place, our learned and enterprising Consul, to whom I am indebted 

 for a sight of this precious relic, about which cluster so many grand 

 souvenirs." 



I will only add, that if your readers wish to obtain a distinct and 

 accurate idea of the region referred to, in which lies the battle field 

 of Arbela, and the plain of Shinar, they should open their atlas 

 and survey the country between Mosul on the Tigris, and Lake Van, 

 southeast of Mount Ararat. It was very natural that the sons of 

 Noah, descending from Ararat, should commence their agricultural 

 labors in the fertile and well watered plain of Shinar, lying to the 

 east, where, in the terrible remembrance of the flood, they vainly 

 and impiously attempted a work which should protect them from 

 the recurrence of the disaster. Recently, I met an English gentle- 

 man, Major Frazer, who belonged to the staff of General Williams, 

 the hero of Kars, who, with three or four other Englishmen, had 

 gained the summit of mount Ararat — the first feat of the kind since 

 the children of Noah descended from it. Thus, by a singular coin- 

 cidence, about the same time, the sacred summit was reached where 

 the ark rested, and the tower discovered which was erected on the 

 plain at its base. 



