EMBANKMENT OF THE RIVER. 
353 
afterwards, (which it does from the south-western extremity of 
the royal building,) shows it could not have been intended for a 
mere wall before the palace; therefore corroborating the pre¬ 
ceding arguments of its having been the original bulwark of the 
river. Its remaining 700 yards, after leaving the Kasr, till it 
has completely crossed the deserted piece of channel at c, pre¬ 
sent a more elevated, though irregular aspect. At c, a small 
opening occurs, nearly on a level with the present surface of the 
river, which there takes a bend, and the embankment recom¬ 
mences in a rapid ascent, rising indeed to about 45 feet; thence 
it followed the course of the stream for another 700 yards; 
but I was unable to trace it farther along the shore, from the 
thick woods of bushes and date-trees which stretch from that 
point all the way to Hillah. Yet, as the identity of a regular and 
ancient embankment has thus been established by ocular ob¬ 
servation, along all of the eastern bank of the Euphrates that cir¬ 
cumstances would allow me to examine, a doubt does not rest in 
my mind, that, could I have explored into all the recesses of those 
thickets, &c., I should have found remnants of its northern and 
southern remains, extend far beyond the expanse of the two 
compass-like limbs of the great rampart (B B); which, I con¬ 
clude, originally terminated at the river, and there joining the 
high bulwark on its bank, completed the whole fortified palace 
enclosure. 
Near the center of this grand area, stands a very large and 
lofty conical mound, (G,) of a striking and singular appearance, 
being about 300 yards long, 100 broad, and between sixty and 
seventy feet in height; seeming entirely composed of fragments 
of burnt brick, of so bright a colour, that at a little distance it 
looks like one huge mass of red. From that spot I took the 
VOL. II. 
z z 
