EMBANKMENTS OR RAMPARTS. 
351 
line of the rampart, are lost in a deep marsh, lying to a con¬ 
siderable breadth and extent between the approximating banks of 
the great boundary. This spot contains some cultivation, but 
more water ; which sapping element may well account for the 
abrupt disappearance of the parallel ridges, at its most swampy 
point. 
Returning to the northern end of the bank of mound, marked 
D, we find another ridge, striking off nearly in an angle from 
that point, and running strait west to the verge of the river, 
where it finishes in a very elevated mass; the shore being there 
extremely high and steep, forming an admirable station for any 
surmounting embattled defence of its bank, which all who have 
examined this adjacent mass, acknowledge it to have been. 
We find from all the accounts of ancient authors respecting 
this fortified embankment, that it served a double purpose ; 
against the element, and those who might wish to enter it 
hostilely. We read, that “ Nebuchadnezzar built prodigious 
banks of brick and bitumen on each side of the river ; and over 
against every street that pointed to its banks, he placed a brazen 
gate in the wall that skirted the river, with stairs leading down 
to the water, whence the inhabitants crossed in boats to the 
opposite side, before the bridge was built. The gates were open 
by day, but always shut at night. While these banks were 
building, the river was turned into the vast artificial lake he had 
caused to be made to the west of the city.” Both Diodorus 
Siculus and Quintus Curtius particularly describe these fortified 
embankments, as formed with courses of sun-dried bricks, en¬ 
cased with mortar and bitumen. The sun-dried bricks may yet 
be traced in regular layers, (at least, I found them, as far as I was 
able to make the search,) all along the steep shore, in the di¬ 
rection from a to d ; and huge fragments of the exterior wall, &e. 
