Sir R. Ker Porter's Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, &c. 
mains‘of {he numerous canals, which, in 
‘former days, conveyed away the super- 
fluous ‘waters from the whole land:of 
Shinar, show the great care of the an- 
‘cient inhabitants to cultivate the ground 
“to! the cutmost) power of: husbandry. 
Near ‘to ‘these broken’ ‘embankments, 
‘vise ‘mounds of higher elevation; mark- 
ing, nodoubt, the sites of the villages, 
‘once “inhabited. by: these industrious 
peasantry, who wrought on those banks, 
aud ‘in the fields now abandoned to the 
desert, 
Phe pile to which we were directing 
our steps, is called) by the Arabs Ted/ 
Nimrood, and: by the: Turks Nemrood 
Tepassé, both of which appellations 
mean the Ziill, not, as some would traus- 
late them, the tower of Nimrod. ‘The 
term Akarkouff, given by the Arabs, is 
intended: to signify the ground only 
around it; and the word, having no dis- 
linet: meaning in the Arabic language, 
most probably was the name of some 
ancient city of the Babylonians, long 
ago disappeared. 
On arriving at’ the huge pyramidal 
mass which appeared in the center of 
this tract, we found it standing upon a 
gently gradualelevation, ascending from 
the perfect level upwards of sixty yards. 
'Phis'apparently foundation-hill, though 
in favt only a collection of rubbish round 
the pile itself, consists of loose sandy 
earth, ‘intermixed “with fragments of 
burnt brick; pottery, and a kind of hard 
clay partially vitrified. . Lmeasured one 
ofthe baked bricks that was nearly en- 
tive ; itformed a square of twelve inches, 
in thickness two and three quarters, and 
was’ of an excessively hard substance. 
No- characters whatever were traceable _ 
on this specimen, nor on any of the 
fragments we saw. From the gentle 
elevation: just described, rises an enor- 
mous: solidly-built. mass, crowning. it 
like a rock, and coimposed entirely, of 
sun-dried brick, | Its present irregular 
shape, worn away by time, and furrowed 
by the rain of ages, leaves no. possibility 
of doing more than conjecturing its.ori- 
ginal form, Its sides face the cardinal 
points... Neither mounds nor, avy. rub- 
bish of ancient decay, track its. more 
distant vicinity,in any direction. except 
tothe Hast, where, not many paces from 
the foot of the Tepessé, a couple of ex- 
tensive and high; heaps of ruins, com- 
posed, of the same materials with those 
of their, more gigantic, neighbour, vany 
the perfect flat of the plain, The height 
of the, 'T'epessé, from, the summit of the 
gradual. slope, from which the sore 
595 
ponderous fabric shoots upwards, to the 
towering irregular top of the whole, may 
be about -a hundred and ‘twenty-five or 
thirty feet; and its circumference at the 
bottom of this upper structure, is three 
hundred feet; which huge pile, at about 
ten feet in a perpendicular line from its 
base, measures a hundred feet, in. the 
breadth of its. face... Prom its founda- 
tion, and the whole way. up to. its, sum- 
mit, the different layers. of sun-dried 
brick or clay, of which it is composed, 
may be traced. with great. precision. 
But the several,courses vary so much.in 
height, that some are twelve, others 
eighteen, or twenty. feet; while every 
brick in each layer of the course is 
united to its neighbour by a thin lining 
of pure slime; no other cement what- 
ever being visible ; though each horizon- 
tal division between these courses. is 
marked by a.stratum of reeds, similar to 
those which at-present grow all over the 
marshy parts of the plain. They bed 
every fifth or sixth Jayer of brick, to\a 
thickness of two inches, lying regularly 
one over the other, unmixed with any 
other substance ; and, as the adjacent 
part of the bricks gradually. crumble 
away, these strata project from: the sur- 
face,-and are very distinguishable at a 
considerable distance. Their state of 
preservation is indeed wonderful ;. the 
only apparent difference, between them 
and the gathered growth of the. present 
year, seeming to be, that these, of so, re- 
mote a harvest are of a darker hue, I 
drew a large quantity out, and: found 
many of them two feet. in length, . It 
does not appear that, in constructing 
these sun-dried bricks, any straw was 
mixed with the fabrick;. and;in,.exa- 
mining various. fragments, of ,,,burnt 
brick, I sought.in vain, for, a morsel .of 
bitumen. The whole, of this,,curious 
pile seems to be solid, excepting where 
certain square perforations,, going , di- 
rectly through, must intersect each 
other in the heart of the, building,.and 
were, probably, intended to | preserve it 
from damp, by. the constant, succession 
of free air.) | There,is also; on its, north- 
ern face (which is nearly perpendicular,) 
and at a, considerable elevation from the 
hase, an opening, ofan, oval. form, rather 
larger than a common-sized window; 
butit does not penetrate farther into the 
pile. than six, or eight feet. | 
From, the; ;ajready, mentioned ruins 
and mounds near.to the Tepessé, some 
traces of a former-city are certainly ap- 
parent; and the scripture account of the 
establishment.of Nimrod in this country, 
gives 
