nt 



BABYLON. 



BABYLON. 



78 



their plot* of corn-land." The disappearance of the outer walls of 

 both Nineveh and Babylon he explain* by supposing them to have 

 tmo m,,, ramparts of mud and brushwood : " Such defences when 

 one* neglected would soon fall to dust and leave no trace* behind." 



Wnt face of the Him Scniroud, from Rich't Memoir on Babylon. 



" The Birs Ximroud, the ' Palace of Nimrod ' of the Arabs, and the 

 prison of Nebuchadnezzar of the Jews ; by old travellers believed to be 

 the very ruins of the Tower of Babel ; by gome again supposed to 

 represent the Temple of Belua, the wonder of the ancient world ; and 

 by others to mark the site of Borsippa, a city celebrated as the high- 

 place of Chaldean worship is a vast heap of bricks, slag, and broken 

 pottery. It is situated about 6 miles to the south-west of HiUah, on 

 the very edge of the vast marsh formed by the waters of the Hindiyah 

 Canal and by the periodical floods of the Euphrates. The dry nitrous 

 earth of the parched plain, driven before the furious south wind, has 

 thrown over the huge mass a thin covering of soil in which no herb 

 or green thing can find nourishment or take root. Thus, unlike the 

 gram-clothed mounds of the more fertile districts of Assyria, the Bin 

 Ximroud is ever a bare and yellow heap. It rises to the height of 

 198 feet, and has on its summit a compact mass of brickwork 37 feet 

 high by 28 feet broad, the whole being thus 235 feet in perpendicular 

 height. Neither the original form nor object of the edifice of which 

 it ia the ruin has hitherto been determined. It is too solid for the 

 walls of a building, and iU shape is not that of a tower. It is pierced 

 by square holes apparently made to admit air through the compact 

 structure. On one aide of it, beneath the crowning masonry, lie huge 

 fragment* torn from the pile itself. The calcined and vitreous sur- 

 face of the bricks, fused into rock-like masses, shows that their fall 

 may have been caused by lightning ; and as the ruin is rent almost 

 from top to bottom, early Christian travellers, as well as some of 

 more recent date, have not hesitated to recognise in them proofs of 

 that divine vengeance which, according to tradition, arrested by fire 

 from heaven the impious attempt of the first descendants of Noah." 

 The inscribed bricks taken from the Birs Nimroud all bear the name 

 of Nebuchadnezzar : it must not be inferred from thin however that 

 he was the founder of the building. " He may have merely added to 

 or rebuilt an earlier edifice." 



" The ruins are divided into two distinct parts, undoubtedly the 

 remains of two different buildings. A rampart or wall, the remains 

 of which are marked by mounds of earth, appears to have inclosed 

 them both. To the west of the high mound topped by the tower- 

 like pile of masonry is a second, which is larger but lower, and in 

 shape more like the ruins on the eastern bank of the Euphrates. It 

 i traversed by ravines and water-courses, and strewed over it are the 

 usual fragments of stone, brick, and pottery. Upon its summit are 

 two small Mohammedan chapels." Dr. Layard made no excavation in 

 the Bin Nimroud. He gives a proposed restoration of the structure, 

 representing a building rising by several distinct stages or terraces 

 from the east to the west, on which side it terminates in a perpen- 

 dicular wall. " It U probable," he adds, " that the ascents from 

 terrace to terrace consisted of broad flights of steps carried up the 

 centre of each stage." 



" The edifice of which this remarkable ruin is the remains was built 

 of kiln-burnt bricks. Fragments of stone, marble, and basalt, scattered 

 among the rubbish, show that it was adorned with other materials. 

 The cement with which the bricks were united is of so tenacious a 

 quality that it 1s almost impossible to detach one from the man 

 entire. The ruin is a specimen of the perfection of Babylonian 

 masonry." The circumference of the Bin Nimroud, according to Mr. 

 Hich, measures 762 yards. 



It seems to be agreed by all travellers who have visited the spot, 

 that the large man of ruins on the east bank of the Euphrates 

 (marked A on the plan), and called Kasr by Rich, or the MujeliW 

 (' overturned '), as it is now called by the Arabs, according to Dr. 

 Layard, are the remains of the fortified palace. It is situated a little 

 to the west of a ravine, 100 yards long, 10 feet wide, and about 60 

 feet deep, which has been formed by those who dig for bricks. It is a 

 very remarkable ruin, and from it* being uncovered and in part 

 detached from the rubbish it is visible from a considerable distance ; 

 but so surpriningly fresh in its appearance, that it was only after a 

 minute inspection that Mr. Rich was satisfied of its being in reality a 

 Babylonian remain. " It consist*," he says, " of several walls and 

 piers, which face the cardinal points, eight feet in thickness; in some 

 places ornamented with niches and in others strengthened by pilasters 



North face of the Kasr. 



and buttresses built of fine burnt brick still perfectly clean and sharp, 

 laid in lime-cement of such tenacity that it is almost impossible to 

 extract a brick whole. The tops of these walls are broken, and may 

 have been much higher; on the oiitside they have in some places 

 been cleared nearly to the foundations, but the internal r paces formed 

 by them are yet filled 

 with rubbish in some 

 parts almost to their 

 summit. One part of the 

 wall bos been split into 

 three parts and over- 

 thrown as if by an 

 earthquake ; some de- 

 tached walls of the aamn 

 kind, standing at dif- 

 ferent distance*, show 

 what remains to have 

 been only a small part 

 of the original fabric ; 

 indeed it appears that 

 a subterranean passage discovered at the southern end of the ravine, 

 as well as an extremely thick wall of yellowish brick cemented with 

 brilliant white mortar which crosses the northern end, were con- 

 nected with it Near this ruin is a heap of rubbish, the sides of which 

 are curiously streaked by the alternation of its materials ; the chief 

 part of which, it is probable, was unburnt brick, as some were found 

 here. A little to the north of this ruin is the famous tree which the 

 natives called Athela, and which they maintain to have been flourish 

 ing in ancient Babylon. It stand* on a kind of ridge ; one side of its 

 trunk, with verdant branches at the top, only remains : the branches 

 waving in the wind produce a melancholy rustling sound." Dr. 

 Layard believes that it is a species of tamarisk. 



" This wonderful piece of masonry," say* Dr. Layard, " is so per- 

 fect and so fresh in colour that it seems but the work of yesterday, 

 although it is undoubtedly part of a building which stood in the 

 midst of old Babylon. . . . Upon nearly every brick is clearly and 

 deeply stamped the name and titles of Nebuchadnezzar, and the 

 inscribed face is always placed downwards. . . . This ruin has for 

 ages been the mine from which the builders of cities rising after the 

 fall of Babylon have obtained their material*. To this day there are 

 men who have no other trade than that of gathering bricks from 1 1n- 

 vast heap, and taking them for sale to the neighbouring towns and 

 villages, and even to Baghdad. There ia scarcely a house in Hillali 

 which is not entirely built of them ; and as the traveller passe* 

 through the narrow streets he see* in the walls of every hovel a 

 record of the glory and power of Nebuchadnezzar." 



With the exception of the solitary pile of masonry rising in the 

 centre, and already described, this mound consists of little else than 

 shattered brickwork. As it has been a brick-quarry for thousands of 

 yean, it was hopeless to expect much to repay the labour of exca- 

 vation. Dr. Layard found fragments of brick covered with a thick 

 enamel or glaze. On them are traced parts of figures and ornaments 

 in brilliant blue, red, deep yellow, white, and black ; the colours still 

 preserving their original brightness. They are supposed, with good 

 reason, to have been used in the walls of the palace, which ancient 

 authors say were painted with the figure* of men and animals. Dr 

 Layard continued a few of the tunnels already opened by Rich, but 

 was Boon compelled to de.t by the falling rubbish. He was fortu- 

 nate enough however to discover " a fragment of limestone on which 

 were part* of two figures undoubtedly those of gods : the name of 

 one deity is added in Babylonian characters to it* sculptured image. 

 It i* probably only a *mall portion of a slab or frieze containing a 

 series of such figures, but after a prolonged search I was unable to 

 find any other piece*. The fragment however is interesting as show- 

 ing that the Babylonian* pourtrayed their divinities in the same manner 

 as the Assyrians. They wear the same high head-dress ornamented 

 with feathers and rosettes, the long curled hair and beard, ami the 

 embroidered garments ; and they hold the same staff with a ring as 

 the gods in the rock-sculptures of Bavian." Fragments of glass, 

 Babylonian gems and cylinders, small bronze figures, and other relics, 

 are found occasionally on the mound by the Arabs, who sell them 

 to the Jews of Hillah. 



South of the Kasr is a mass of ruins 1100 yards long, 800 yards in 

 it* greatest breadth, and 60 or 60 feet above the level of the plain. 

 A ridge of considerable height, and nearly 100 yards across, connects 

 it at the nurth-west angle with the ruins of the palace, from winch 

 to eastward of the ridge it U separated by a valley 600 yards in 

 length, covered with rank grass and crossed by lines of low ruins. 

 This southern mound U called Jumjuma, from a village close by ; 

 and sometimes Amram Ibn Ali, from a small domed tomb in an 

 oblong incloiure on it* summit. " No masonry," observes Dr. 

 Layard, " is here seen as in the MujeliVxS (the Kiwr of Rich) ; all 

 remains of buildings, if there be any still existing, are deeply buried 

 beneath the loose nitrous earth. It is traversed by innumerable 

 ravines, and it* form and level are equally irregular. . . . The mound 

 of Amram," he continues, " as well as nearly all those in Babylonia, 

 has been used as a place of burial for the dead long after the destruc- 

 tion of the great edifices whose ruin* it cover*/' "" ^" ~" 



Trcuche* were 



