CHINA^S PLACE IN ANCIENT HISTOEY : A FRAGMENT. 99 



coiintiy itself"; special attention bestowed upon the rise and 

 periodic fall of the Nile ; the nilometer established ; canals 

 and sluices for irrigation constructed, the great reservoir, the 

 lake Moeris, formed* : the labyrinth made, certain colossal 

 figures constructed within the area of, and in the vicinity of 

 that reservoir ; the great pyramids of Sakkara and of 

 Ghizeh raised. 



In Chaldea the descendants of Cush, avIio did not follow 

 the rest of the children of Ham into Africa, seized upon the 

 fertile fields of Shinar, otherwise Babylonia, where under 

 Nimrod and Ashur, they erected various cities, including 

 Babylon and Nineveh,t the assigned date of the former city 

 being B.c, 2247. The foundation of the Assyrian monarchy 

 was probably laid about this time. At the same early period 

 it is recorded that there learning flourished ; astronomy was 

 in a considerably advanced condition. According to the 

 Greeks, about B.C. 1968 Ninus succeeded his father Belus ; 

 his wife Semiramis, in one account, being the real foundress 

 of Nineveh. She resigned in favour of her son Ninyas, after 

 whom for 1350 years or more Assyria was ruled by his descen- 

 dants until SardanapalusI immolated himself and so put an 

 end to the first empire. It would be useless to reconcile the 

 contradictory accounts which the ancients have transmitted 

 to us of the last days of Sardanapalus. It seems, however, 

 to be established by modern critics that Sardanapalus was 

 Assurbani-pal, and that this name was applied by the Greeks 

 to Sin-sarraiskui] or Saracos, the last king of Assyria. 

 Nineveh was destroyed by the Medes and Assyrian power 

 came to an end about 607 B.C. 



With the accession of Yu the Great, B.C. 2208, and the 

 institution tliereby of dynastic succession, history became 

 disconnected from mere tradition, being thenceforward itself 



* Its formation is assigned to Amenophis Til, sixth monarch of the 

 twelfth or Theban dynasty, B.C. 2300 to B.C. 2084; also to Amenheme III, 

 of the thirteenth dynasty B.C. 2120. But it is impossible to reconcile 

 discrepancies between different dates given. A continuous chronological 

 record will no doubt be the outcome in due time of investigations by 

 Flinders Petrie and other disting\iished Egyptologists. See Note 2. 



t Of Babel, supposed to exist in the Birs Nimroud. By some authors 

 the tower was connected with Fire-worship, i.e., Sun-worship. 



X Ancient Histm-y, Schmitz, pp. 73, 75 ; White's Universal History, 

 p. 47 ; Eolliu, vol. i., p. 279. (From Greek sources.) 



