130 
was exposed on the banks of the Nile, we learn that ‘‘ she took for 
him an ark of hull rushes, and daubed it with slime and pitch*.” 
We have, perhaps, not sufficient authority, either from the words 
which the English translators of the Bible have here employed, or 
from the words adopted into the Hebrew, to rest on more than pro- 
bability, that it was bitumen that was used in coating over the ark 
of Noah ; or in covering the vessel of bull rushes, in which Moses 
was exposed on the banks of the Nile. Little doubt, however, can 
exist, that it was the substance which the builders of the tower of 
Babel employed, instead of mortar. In proof of this, we learn, 
from some modern travellers, that the remains of buildings have 
been discovered, in which bitumen had been thus employed, instead 
of mortar ; and that there exists every reason to believe, that this 
was on the very spot on which Babylon stood. 
That this was really the site of the ancient city of Babel, appears 
to be very evident, from the information obtained by the learned 
researches of Major Rennell. Abulfeda, he says, an oriental geo- 
grapher, states, that the ancient city of Babel has now nothing more 
than a village on its site ; and that this village, Hellah, stands on the 
land of Babel. Tliis account is very much corroborated by the 
Turkish geographer, Ibrahim Effendi, who says, that Babel is close 
to Hellah ; and modern travellers agree, that the Arabs, and the in- 
habitants on the spot, give the name of Babel to the district round 
about Hillah ; and point out vast ruins, as the remains of the ancient 
city, spoken of by Abulfeda. 
The city of Babylon, in the opinion of Major Rennell, formed 
from a careful examination and comparison of the several accounts 
given by different authors, must have been at or near the present 
city of Hillah, or Hellah, which is known to have been built of the 
bricks of the ancient city ; and is even said to stand on a part of its 
* Exodus, chap, ii, ver. 3. 
