RUINS IN ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 327 
able marks of buried ruins were visible to a vast distance. In a 
direction south 50° east, I could plainly discern the golden cu¬ 
pola of Mesched Ali; and, on the same line of the horizon, but 
about 30° more to the eastward, I saw the dark summit of a 
very lofty mound, which I calculate to be the same mentioned by 
Mr. Rich, in his “ Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon,” distant 
many miles from their boundaries; and, to which notice, he 
adds the interesting circumstance, that a few years ago, a cap, or 
diadem, of pure gold, and some other articles of the same metal, 
were found there by the Khezail Arabs; but who refused to give 
them up to the pasha. Had they been resigned to him, and pre¬ 
served, an opportunity of examining such antiquities would have 
been very desirable. So high a mass of ruin as the mound pre¬ 
sented, can hardly be supposed to cover any thing less than the 
remains of a fortress, a palace, or one of those enormous piles con¬ 
secrated to religion and astronomy, which appears to have been 
erected in every city of Babylonia; answering in general shape 
at least, as well as purpose, to the great center of Sabian worship, 
the Temple of Belus, in Babylon itself. Such a pile I believe 
that of Akarkouff to have been ; and such, it is not improbable, 
was that which contained the golden diadem, the relics of its 
departed grandeur; each sacerdotal structure having formerly 
been surrounded by its appendant city of relative consequence. 
We are told, that at different stages between Ecbatana and 
Babylon, Alexander was met by successive soothsayers, warning 
him against his approach to that city. Hence, we may reason¬ 
ably conclude, that astrological seers from the temples, or high- 
places, of the several great towns he passed through, were those 
who came forth to meet him, and announced the threatening 
stars. 
