Sir R. Ker Porter's Travels.in 
interest of prospect... Our ridetbis. day 
had occupied nearly nineshoars, and over 
a space of ground.about the same,as,tho. 
day, before, namely, twenty-eight, miles. 
November 12th.—By_,the appointed: 
hour, this. morning, the. kiahya’s officer 
appeared before my, gate;;at the head of 
a hundred, |well-armed .men,; some. of 
whom were, Arabs; all. fairly moanted, 
and. ready to. atlend; me)to that part,of 
the desolated.land.of Shinar which ties 
west of the Eupbrates:. My immediate 
object) was, the, Birs Nimrood; the 
tower mentioned by Neibuhr with so 
mucb, regret at his having been pre- 
vented; by apprehension of ile wild 
tribes. in, the desert,, from, closely exa- 
mining, its prodigious remains. But the 
observations: he’ was. enabled to make, 
however, short, of his, wishes, were sufti- 
eient to;awaken. in him an idea, now 
ably, supported .by. the» more. compre- 
hensive. investigations of the present 
British resident at Bagdad, that in this 
pile. we ‘see the very Tower ‘of Babel, 
the, stupendous . artificial. | mountain 
erected,.by. Nimrod in-the plain of 
Shinar,,.and..on. which, in after-ages, 
Nebuehadnezzar raised- the temple of 
Belus. ..It-lies about six miles south- 
west) of Hillah..On Jeaving the suburb 
on the: eastern shore of the river, we 
erossed a bridge, of thirty-six pontoons, 
all,considerably. smaller than those over 
the, Tigris‘at) Bagdad; and like them in 
a peglected state. ‘Phe width of the 
Euphrates at this passage, is four hun- 
dred and.thirty feet... On quitting the 
crazy timbers of the bridge, which gaye 
terrible note of insecurity, under the 
tramping feet. of my attendant troopers, 
we entered the ‘most considerable part 
of the town of Hillah;-and, after riding 
through. a. narrow and crowded bazar, 
nearly suffocated with the double evils 
of beat and stench, and thence proceed- 
ing along three or four close streets, at 
intervals opened to the fresh air by in- 
fervening beaps of ruins, we reached 
the western gate, called that of 'Tah- 
masia, whieh happily delivered us into 
a freer\atmosphere. We Jeft the high 
banks of the ‘I'ajya canal on our right, 
or, as itis; otherwise called, the Ali 
Pasha trench, (cat to defend the town 
from the marauders of the desert,) run- 
ning inva direction north-west; aud ra- 
pidly over the apparently boundless 
plain, found the ground jin general per- 
fectly flat, and in parts very marshy. 
My eyes ranged on all sides, while 
crossing this vast barren tract, which, 
assuredly, had of old been covered, if 
Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Se. 599 
not) by. ‘elosely, compacted. streets, - at. 
least. with, the parks and, gardens. at- 
tached to distinct mansions, or divisions 
of this once imperial city; but all was 
withered, and gone, | and, comparatively, 
level to the very horizon, till, the object 
of my) expedition: presented |) itself, 
standing alone in) the)|solitary; waste 
like the awful figure of Prophecy ‘herself, 
pointing to the fulfilment of her word. 
At the moment of my, first seeing it, 
the tower bore from us south 7° west; 
to which point we made dircet forward, 
hastening our speed as we approached 
nearer the stupendous. pile. During 
almost the whole of our ride, I had ob- 
served numerous spots on the plain, 
shewing the saline encrustment usually 
found, where. buildings have formerly 
stood; also a long line of broken. bank 
on our left: but here, at: about. five 
miles from Hillah, certainly commenced 
the first western very clevated traces of 
former edifices, beginning. with some 
considerable mounds, near to: the res 
mains of an old canal, through whose 
bed we passed, and which. stretched 
first southward, and then bent. west- 
ward. About six hundred yards far- 
ther brought us to a second eanal. of 
vaster dimensions than the preceding, 
being full thirty yards across, with very 
high embankments, broken into.a suc- 
cession of little hilloeks.. This. canal 
took a direction to our, right for nearly 
three-quarters of a mile, corresponding 
to the line of the other-on onp left; run- 
ning first north and west, then taking a 
sweep gradually due south, ‘bent again, 
and (aecording to the observation. I 
could make by my glass, while standing 
on one of the hiliocks,) described .a, line 
to the eastward, till it joined the nar- 
rower canal through whose channel. we 
had recently passed.) ‘The ‘space thus 
inclosed,'scemcd to be about two miles; 
forming, though ,in ruins, the. outlines 
of a. vast court, or area, round the sub- 
VMmest monument of the past, still rear- 
ing its shattered. summit towards the 
Heavens, ,,On observing. the range of 
these. canals, or trenches, .it- struck me, 
that the inner bank, may. have been a 
wall; and in) that case, the surrounding 
channel becomes, a feature of exterior 
defence. Almost,all over the ground 
between the base;of the great, pile itself 
and these boundaries, abundant vestiges 
of former building, are/visible;, exhibit- 
ing uneven.heaps of various sizes, co- 
vered with masses of broken brick, tiles, 
and vitrified fragments, all silently elo- 
quent of some former signal OF TERR 
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