BY THE EIVERS OF BABYLON 59 



Jupiter, a blood-red stage for Mars, a gold-plated 

 stage for the sun, a yellow stage for Venus, a blue 

 stage for Mercury, and a silver stage for the moon. 

 These reflected the seven chief heavenly bodies, 

 which were observed assiduously from the summits ; 

 and they have given the week of seven days to later 

 civilization. Saturn's day, the Sabbath, was a day 

 of rest. Libraries were very large and numerous, 

 and women were educated as well as men. 



Art was still more developed. The shortage of 

 stone restricted sculpture and architecture, but the 

 carved gems, seals, the fine pottery, the gold and 

 silver and bronze work, were of the highest order. 

 The great temples and palaces were necessarily of 

 brick, but the Babylonians were very skilful in the 

 manufacture of glazed and coloured bricks and tiles, 

 and the city was gay and beautiful. The city of 

 which we have now uncovered the remains belongs 

 to a late date (about 680-70 B.C.), but it reproduced 

 the earlier Babylon destroyed by the Assyrians. 

 The walls, about twelve miles in length, were eighty- 

 five feet thick and 300 feet high. Two chariots could 

 have galloped abreast on top of the walls. One of 

 the gates, the Ishtar Gate, is well preserved, and we 

 see that the walls were decorated with immense bulls 

 and dragons in coloured tiles. The whole of the 

 great buildings seem to have been faced with glazed 

 and coloured tiles, with decorative figures; and at 

 the summit of the temples were little shrines with 

 massive gold statues and furniture. 



These are but a few fragments of the very large 

 knowledge we now have of ancient Babylon, its 

 culture and its people, between 2,000 and 1,000 b.c. 

 The really 'amazing thing to any man who carefully 



