OLD BAGDAD. 
2 55 
palaces, colleges, and other public buildings on that side of the 
river, but extended the city along the opposite bank, uniting 
the new quarter to the old by a bridge of boats. In my ar¬ 
rangement for visiting both divisions, I paid the compliment to 
seniority, by choosing to go over the western quarter first and, 
accordingly, Mr. Hyne was so good as to be my guide to its 
objects of interest. Mr. Rich’s house is on the eastern side of 
the town; hence we had to cross the bridge of union, which is 
still formed of pontoons, thirty in number, but in so ruinous a 
state, that few of the natives venture to trust themselves on its 
rotten planks. To avoid this, they pay a trifle to the small 
craft on the river, and are paddled over. The width of the 
stream at the bridge is about 670 feet. 
On rising the steep bank of old Bagdad, (now only considered 
a suburb to the larger and more modern city on the eastern 
shore,) I found it well furnished with shops, ranged along nu¬ 
merous and extensive streets; which, for security against the 
inroads of the refractory Arabs, were protected by stoutly-em¬ 
battled towered walls, and strong gates opening towards Hillah 
and Kazameen, Beyond these recent bulwarks, vestiges of yet 
more spreading lines of buildings are visible on the plain; by 
rendering it uneven, from the numerous undulating mounds 
which envelope the ruins of the houses. These low, irregular 
heaps, are strewed with fragments of brick, tiles, and rubbish ; 
nothing of more consequence being traceable, to distinguish the 
site of common habitations from that of the most splendid 
palaces. A burying-ground, covered with Asiatic memorials of 
the dead, has extended itself over a large tract of land that must 
have been formerly occupied by streets of the city. The tomb 
of Zobiede, which rises from amidst it, probably, at first stood 
