;o2 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



THE RUINS OF ANCIENT BABYLON UNCOVERED BY GE3MAN ARCH.ECLOGIS'I 8. 



UNCOVERING BABYLON. 



In the Asiatic Empire to which Tur- 

 key is now withdrawing, there are many 

 monuments of human history of deep 

 interest to all the races of the west. No 

 section of the habitable world is per- 

 haps more absorbingly interesting to- 

 day than the valley of the Tigris and 

 Euphrates rivers, in which, according 

 to tradition and science, the human race 

 had its cradle, says a writer in the 

 American Review of Reviews. 



The ancient empires of this Near 

 East are being uncovered by the efforts 

 of the archaeologists, and we are be- 

 ginning to see how the Assyrians, Chal- 

 deans, and Babylonians lived. These 

 investigations are in part confirming, 

 and in part apparently contradictory, 



of the descriptions given by the classi- 

 cal writers. All the chequered history 

 of Babylon as it passed through the 

 hands of its various conquerors is told 

 in the inscriptions that have been and 

 are still being deciphered by the learned 

 archaeologists of Germany, France 

 and England. The Germans have been 

 particularly active in the excavation 

 and exploration of the ruins of the city 

 of Babylon. 



The valley of the Tigris and the 

 Euphrates, generally known as Meso- 

 potamia, was at one time one of the 

 righest agricultural regions of the 

 world. Early in the historv of the 

 human race two splendid cities, each, 

 in turn, capital of the Assyrian empire, 



