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great mystery to me, and although I have been trying for the 
last three years to find out, through scientific gentlemen in 
this country, the cause of the vitrification, I have as yet found 
no one who could explain the mystery satisfactorily. Every 
traveller who visited the place could not help noticing the 
almost supernatural sight, but not one of them could come to 
any tangible conclusion as to the cause. Benjamin, of Tudela, 
goes so far as to assert that the “ heavenly fire which struck 
the tower split it to its very foundation;” and my late friend, 
Mr. Loftus, gives the opinion of a “ talented companion,” who 
originated the idea, when they examined the Birs Nimroud in 
company, that in order to render their edifices more durable, 
the Babylonians submitted them, when erected, to the heat of 
a furnace. The former authority does not tell us whether his 
assertion was based upon his own conjecture, or that he quoted 
a tradition which existed then in the country when he visited 
the town about seven hundred years ago. As for the opinion 
of the latter, it cannot hold water, because it is against 
common sense that a huge tower like that of Birs Nimroud 
could be subjected to artificial heat after it was built. The 
tower must have been originally at least 200 feet high ; and to 
build a furnace to envelope it would be just like trying to cover 
a solid mass equal in size to the whole dome of Saint Paul's 
Cathedral with one huge furnace, and subjecting it to artificial 
heat for the purpose of vitrifying it ! Indeed, there is no visible 
sign of vitrification on any part of the remaining edifice, 
but the huge vitrified boulders are scattered about the 
tower, and look as if they do not belong to the place at all. 
Some of these must be between ten and fifteen cubic feet 
square : and the vitrification is so complete throughout, that 
when I tried to have a large piece broken to bring to the 
British Museum, I failed to do so until I obtained the services 
of a competent mason, who managed to break me two pieces, 
after having blunted half-a-dozen of his iron tools. 
It may not be out of place here to touch upon the history 
of the Tower of Babel and the confusion of tongues, men- 
tioned in the eleventh chapter of Genesis, and see what Gentile 
historians and tradition say upon the subject. Hestiseus 
says : — “ The priests who escaped (the Deluge) took with 
them the implements of the worship of the Euyalion Jove, 
and came to Senaar, in Babylonia. But they were again 
driven from thence by the introduction of a diversity of 
tongues, upon which they founded colonies in various parts, 
settling in such situations as chance or the direction of God 
led them to occupy.” 
Alexander Polyhiston also mentions that “when all men 
