336 
RUINS OF BABYLON. 
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with marks of distinction. The cone and minaret of this 
mosque, rising high above the line of trees, are the chief points 
whence, at a distance, the bearing of Hillah can be taken. A 
little farther, amongst these grateful shades to the south, there 
is another pyramidal structure precisely in the same taste as that 
just described; being elevated on an octagonal base, full twice 
the magnitude of that assigned to Joshua; but the height of the 
cone is diminished almost one third, by the effects of some act 
of violence, which has broken it off in that part; leaving it with 
something of the appearance of a huge decapitated sugar-loaf. 
The tradition respecting this piece of antiquity, modern when 
compared with those I so lately visited, is, that some miracle 
was wrought here in favour of the Caliph Ali; and that not 
only the monument was raised to commemorate the event, but 
the place shares the honours of the holy sepulchre of that cele¬ 
brated caliph, which lies far south in the Desert, and is called 
Mesched Ali. 
Having discussed Hillah, I shall proceed to the more interest¬ 
ing ground in its immediate neighbourhood, still named by the 
Arabs Babel; while its vast remains lay for ages in the depths 
of time, as much forgotten by the learned of Europe as if it 
had been a city of the antediluvians. The style of impassible 
approach in which it was long considered, when thought of at 
all, may be gathered from Sir John Maundeville, who travelled 
over Asia A.D. 1322. He writes, “ that Baby lone is in the 
grete desertes of Arabye, upon the waye as men gon towarde 
the kyngdome of Caldee. But it is fulle longe sithe ony man 
durste neyhe to the toure ; for it is alle deserte and full of 
dragons and grete serpentes, and fulle dyverse veneymouse 
bestes alle abouten.” These impressions remained until the 
journey thither by Pietro della Valle, in the year 1616, which 
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