348 
RUINS OF BABYLON. 
ceased having alone compelled the unusual place of sepulture, 
we have at least one instance from history to support, and the 
personage is Nitocris, queen of Babylon. It is related that she 
caused her own monument to be built over one of the most dis¬ 
tinguished gates of the city , with an inscription “ conjuring all who 
might have the power, as they valued their own future peace, 
never to bring themselves into the necessity of invading that 
tomb for the treasures it might contain.” One of the early Per¬ 
sian monarchs, after the subversion of the Babylonian empire 
by Cyrus, (Darius I believe, and probably when he was lowering 
the excessive strength of the walls,) broke open the tomb ; but 
instead of the riches that were expected, found only a scroll, 
with something of these words. — “ If thou hadst not a most 
improvident, sordid, and avaricious soul, thou wouldst never 
have violated the rest of the dead!” The great gates of these 
pre-eminent Asiatic cities, were in themselves fortresses. 
The Mujelibe, or, as I would suppose it, the ancient citadel 
of this royally inclosed part of Babylon, is, at present, in a man¬ 
ner cut off from the range it formerly protected, by the extended 
line of the Old and New Nil (or Neel) canals; which cross be¬ 
fore it, at about a quarter of a mile distant, reaching from the 
Euphrates to the great bounding embankment on the east of 
the pile, and severing that also, runs on far beyond the present 
point of my observations. Although it is generally said that 
the first mentioned of these water-courses is of deep antiquity, 
yet its very obstructing position, with relation to so vast a 
building as the Mujelibe, proves that it must have been dug in 
times so far subsequent to the era of Babylon, that these 
neighbouring great structures could then be deemed of no more 
consequence than accidental hills in the vicinity of a river. In 
a succeeding conversation with Mr. Rich, he was so kind as to 
