12 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



DIODORUS HTHE Hanging Garden of Babylon was not built by Semiramis 

 SICULUS 1 wno founded the city, 1 but by a later prince called Cyrus, 

 ' for the sake of a courtezan, who being a Persian, as they say, by 

 birth, and creating meadows on mountain tops, desired the king, 

 by an artificial plantation, to imitate the land in Persia. This 

 garden was 400 feet square, and the ascent up to it was to the 

 top of a mountain, and had buildings and apartments out of one 

 into another, like a theatre. Under the steps to the ascent were 

 built arches one above another, rising gently by degrees, which 

 supported the whole plantation. The highest arch, upon which 

 the platform of the garden was laid, was 50 cubits high, and the 

 garden itself was surrounded with battlements and bulwarks. 

 The walls were made very strong, built at no small charge and 

 expense, being 22 feet thick, and every sally port 10 feet wide. 

 Over the several storeys of this fabric were laid beams, and 

 summers of large massy stones, each 16 feet long and 4 broad. 

 The roof over all these was first covered with reeds daubed with 

 abundance of brimstone (or bitumen), then upon them were laid 

 double tiles, joined with a hard and durable mortar, and over 

 them all was a covering with sheets of lead, that the wet, which 

 drained through the earth, might not rot the foundation. Upon 

 all these was laid earth, of a convenient depth, sufficient for the 

 growth of the greatest trees. When the soil was laid even and 

 smooth, it was planted with all sorts of trees, which both for 

 beauty and size might delight the spectators. The arches, which 

 stood one above the other had in them many stately rooms of all 

 kinds, and for all purposes. There was one that had in it certain 

 engines, whereby it drew plenty of water out of the river Euphrates, 

 through certain conduits hid from the spectators, which supplied 

 it to the platform of the garden. 



1 The Syrians are great Gardiners, they take exceeding paines, and bee 

 most curious in gardening ; whereupon arose the proverb in Greeke to this 

 effect, 'Many Woorts and Pot-hearbs in Syria.' Pliny 's ' Natural History' 

 (P. Holland}. 



