296 
ROAD THROUGH THE RUINS. 
cubits, or 75 feet; a great reduction from their first towering 
height ; estimated by Herodotus (who had visited the city) at 
350 feet. We may therefore suppose, that the immense trench 
which had protected these primary walls, and which, it is said, 
was so equally proportioned to them, that the clay which formed 
their bricks, was dug out of its bosom ;—we may reasonably sup¬ 
pose, that the precipitated 275 feet of wall, would be cast into 
the trench, to finally accomplish the monarch’s design of ren¬ 
dering the rebellious city thereafter comparatively defenceless. 
Could we, then, ever discover any one part of these hidden 
masses of overthrown brick-work, filling up a wide and deeply 
subterraneous area, (such as that must have been which formed 
one of the great ditches of Babylon ;) from that point; by steady 
investigation, the line and extent of these long-lost walls might, 
probably, be even distinctly traced. 
The whole of our road was on a tolerably equal track; except¬ 
ing where unavoidably broken by small mounds, detached pieces 
of canal embankments, and other indications of a place in ruins ; 
mingled with marshy hollows in the ground, and large nitrous 
spots, from the deposits of accumulated rubbish. Indeed it was 
almost impossible to note, while their number confused our 
antiquarian researches, the endless ramifications of minor aque¬ 
ducts, whose remains intersected the way. At about four miles 
in advance from the long single embankment, or interior boun¬ 
dary ridge I mentioned before, we crossed a very spacious canal; 
beyond which, to the eastward, the plain appeared a vast un¬ 
interrupted flat. 
Rather more than half an hour’s ride further, brought us 
parallel with the east face of the Mujelibe, which then rose at 
about a quarter of a mile’s distance on our right. Just at this 
