The spaces between the towers were broad enough to 

 allow a pair- horsed chariot to turn (Herod, i. 179).* The 

 question of the actual height has been discussed by Sir H. 

 Rawlinson in Herodotus, and by Dr. Oppert in the Athenceum 

 Franqaifi, 1854, p. 370. The celebrated Hanging Gardens 

 were on the eastern side of the river and within the palace 

 precincts. They were built in the form of a square (each side 

 being 400 feet long) upon a series of arches.f 



The absence of genuine history in the inscriptions of 

 Nebuchadnezzar is remarkable. All the inscriptions yet 

 found narrate his great care to make Babylon a success in 

 the matter of buildings. There is no doubt he was a most 

 pious king, and whether he considered the giving an account 

 of his restoration and rebuilding of the temples of the gods 

 of more importance than a narrative of his wars, is very 

 hard to say. If only the history of his expedition through 

 Palestine, of his siege of Tyre, and of his defeat of all the 

 nations in that part of the world could be found. In the 

 following inscription, the large India House inscription is 

 perhaps referred to when he speaks of the account of his 

 works which he wrote. 



Nebuchadnezzar III., son of Nabupolassar, reigned from 

 about B.C. 605 to B.C. 562. He took command of the Babylon- 



* One cannot help thinking there must be an allusion to these mighty 

 walls in the verse in Jeremiah (li. 53), " 'I hough Babylon should mount up 

 to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength," &c. 



(my bvra "rann *o). 



t " In uno latere civitatis erant horti suspensi, fere conjuncti fluvio 

 Euphrati ; qui numerabantur inter septem miracula mundi. oitus eoruni 

 erat ngurse quadrata?, quadringentorum pedum, per quemlibet angnluin 

 quibus corresponderent secundus et tertius. Intus erant quatuor atria vel 

 arese, quadringentorum pedum longitudinis, et centum latitudinis, ita ut una 

 supra aliam emineret. Prima elevebatur a terra duodecim cubitos cum 

 dimidio. f-ecunda, viginti cubitos. Tertia, triginta septem cubitos cum 

 dimidio. Quarta, proxima Euphrati, quinquaginta cubitos. Illic ex- 

 trahebatur aqua ab Euphrate certis quibusdam inachinis, ad irrigandos 

 hortos. Tota base structura sustinebatur fornicibus latericiis, sibi 

 cohserentibus lato interstitio secundum proportioneni arearum ; quorum 

 quilibet habebat duodecim pedes diametri ; distabat itaque unus at altero 

 fornix pedes viginti duos ; et hoc quidem tarn pro firmatione intermedia,, 

 quam pro commoditate mansiuncularum quarundam, ibi exstructarum. 

 buperiora harum tabernarum, primo erant instrata magnis lapidibus, 

 longitudinis sedecim pedum, et quatuor latitudinis. L>einde totuni illud erat 

 -coopertdm multis arundinibus. Tertio, omnes ilia? arundines erant obtectse 

 magnis laminis plumbeis, quae defenderent fornices ab humiditate terrse. 

 Tandem erat super omnia hsec, optima terra, exculta exquisitis floribus et 

 plantis," &c. Not. in Liod. Sic., i. p. 124. 



