OR RUIN OF AKA11KOUFF. 
279 
From the already mentioned ruins and mounds near to the 
Tepesse, some traces of a former city are certainly apparent; and 
the scripture account of the establishment of Nimrod in this 
country, give authority for seeking in it the remains of several 
places of that consequence, besides those of the great capital. 
The words are these, from Genesis, “ And the beginning of his 
kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the 
land of Shinar.” Hence, we may find one here ; and the third name 
in the above enumeration seems not very dissimilar to that of 
Akarkouff. Pliny mentions the existence of a city, called in his 
time Hippara, or Sippora, that was situated in the immediate 
vicinity of the Nahar-raga stream ; and certainly the remains of 
a canal of great magnitude are still visible somewhat to the north 
of Akarkouff. Some writers would find the Sittace of Xeno¬ 
phon on this spot; but the changes of the names of places, in 
the course of ages, are differences of no consequence in establish¬ 
ing their actual existence. The neighbourhood of this departed 
city, to that of Bagdad, may satisfactorily account for the relics 
of brick and mounds being so few ; both, doubtless, having 
afforded abundant stores for the erection of the Arabian town ; 
though, indeed, several writers have roundly asserted that it was 
built out of the remains of Babylon itself. The actual distance 
between that most ancient, and this modern capital, is sufficient to 
disprove the idea to any traveller on the spot; though he can 
have no doubt of the city of the caliphs having collected its ma¬ 
terials out of one of Babylonian origin : and what so likely as from 
this, comparatively, at its very gates ? But, from the system of 
tearing down one city, when on its decline, to help the erection 
of another more agreeable to the views of the founder, Babylon, 
“ the queen of nations,” was so far from being exempted, that 
