366 
RUINS OF BABYLON. 
from the mortar; in short, it was nearly impossible to sepa¬ 
rate them : and to this circumstance the present masses owe 
their preservation. The bricks of which they are composed are 
of a very pale yellow; having so fresh an appearance as to strike 
me at first, as they did Mr. Rich, with an idea of their having 
been a more modern erection than the mound; but on a minute 
examination, no doubt remained on my mind of their equal an¬ 
tiquity. After considerable labour, I succeeded in having several 
pieces of the brick chipped off from an immense fragment which 
had fallen from an adjacent mass ; and on clearing my speci¬ 
mens from the lower course, I plainly traced sufficient of the 
cuneiform characters, to discover them to be parts of inscriptions 
in seven lines. Each brick was placed with its written face 
downwards, on a layer of cement so sparing, that it did not 
exceed the twentieth part of an inch in thickness; appearing, 
where it united the two bricks, like a fine white line, subdivided 
by another of a reddish brown, with a granulated sparkling 
effect. The hardness of this mass was inconceivable ; and it 
seemed not less wonderful that so slender a line of cement 
should hold so tenaciously its respective courses of such massive 
bricks. I was also much struck with the singular appearance of 
several of these buttress-like walls, standing, or rather inclining 
from their centre, as if shaken by some convulsion of nature: 
part are half torn asunder ; and others seem actually pushed 
beyond the smooth and regular line of their original front. On 
examining a projecting ledge thus formed, and looking up under 
its protruding bricks, I plainly discerned the cuneiform inscrip¬ 
tions on their downward faces, thus exposed ; a sufficient proof 
of the very ancient antiquity of the structure, notwithstanding 
the fresh, untarnished aspect of the materials. 
