356 
RUINS OF BABYLON. 
from the everlasting digging in its apparently inexhaustible 
quarries for brick of the strongest and finest material. From 
these incessant depredations, the whole mass is furrowed into 
deep ravines, many of considerable length and width, crossing 
and recrossing each other in every direction ; indeed, there is 
hardly a ridge of the mound left that does not, at intervals of 
ten or fifteen feet, slope into hollows of from forty to fifty feet 
in depth, and some even deeper. From the unbroken succession 
of these traders in brick, during the progress of so many ages, 
and the system still going on, the minor features of the place 
are not only altered, but the whole surface kept in so decom¬ 
posed a state, that at every step we made, we sunk into dust 
and rubbish. But that the aspect of the remains, as I found 
them, may be compared at one view with what they were when 
Mr. Rich saw them, I shall repeat his observations in his own 
perspicuous detail. 
“ This grand heap of ruins is nearly a square, of 700 yards in 
length and breadth; and its south-west angle is connected with 
the north-west angle of the mounds of Amran, by a ridge of 
considerable height, and nearly 100 yards in breadth. This is 
the place where Beauchamp made his observations, and it is 
certainly the most interesting part (on this side) of the ruins of 
Babylon. Every vestige discoverable in it declares it to have 
been composed of buildings far superior to all the rest which 
have left traces in the eastern quarter ; the bricks are of the 
finest description, and notwithstanding this is the grand store¬ 
house of them, and that the greatest supplies have been ere 
now constantly drawn from it, they appear still to be abundant. 
But the operation of extracting the bricks has caused great 
confusion, and contributed much to increase the difficulty of 
