306 
PLAIN OF SHINAR 
under the tramping feet of my attendant troopers, we entered 
the most considerable part of the town of Hillah; and, after 
riding through a narrow and crowded bazar, nearly suffocated 
with the double evils of heat and stench, and thence proceeding 
along three or four close streets, at intervals opened to the fresh 
air by intervening heaps of ruins, we reached the western gate, 
called that of Tahmasia, which happily delivered us into a freer 
atmosphere. We left the high banks of the Tajya canal on our 
right, or, as it is otherwise called, the Ali Pasha trench, (cut to 
defend the town from the marauders of the desert,) running in 
a direction north-west; and rapidly moving over the apparently 
boundless plain, found the ground in general perfectly flat, and 
in parts very marshy. My eyes ranged on all sides, while 
crossing this vast barren tract, which, assuredly, had of old been 
covered, if not by closely compacted streets, at least with the 
parks and gardens attached to distinct mansions, or divisions of 
this once imperial city; but all was withered and gone, and, com¬ 
paratively, level to the very horizon, till the object of my ex¬ 
pedition presented itself, standing alone in the solitary waste 
like the awful figure of Prophecy herself, pointing to the fulfil¬ 
ment of her word. 
At the moment of my first seeing it, the tower bore from us 
south 7° west; to which point we made direct forward, hastening 
our speed as we approached nearer the stupendous pile. But 
having been about an hour in our course, we were suddenly 
startled by a cloud of horsemen just discoverable on our left; 
and who, gradually becoming more distinctly visible, continued 
to keep on in a parallel line with ourselves. Their unexpected 
appearance gave an instant check to the ardent career of my own 
troop, who now, at a more restrained pace, interrupted by short 
