374 
RUINS OF BABYLON. 
of mound (B B B B) to which I have given the name of the 
great rampart, really composed the extreme boundary of the 
fortified palace, as described by ancient authors, and which is 
now very traceable to the recorded circumference; between six 
and seven miles. The two interior lines (E F) running parallel 
with each other north and south, seem sufficient vestiges of the 
second and third embattled walls, also mentioned by historians ; 
and which more immediately inclosed the particular area where 
the palace, and its appending structures, ranged along that side 
of the river. The strong embankment lately described, presents 
the line of bulwark on that bank, which protected the royal 
domain from common ingress on that quarter. That these ob¬ 
servations (though drawn from documents which, on the first 
glance seem in the most bewildering state of ruin,) agree with 
astonishing precision to the outline of what is given us by ancient 
writers, of the great palace and its fortified boundaries, I venture 
to say may be gathered, on comparing the accounts of those 
writers with the general plan I subjoin, and which I drew on the 
spot. * But what it presents, is no more than the gigantic skele¬ 
ton of a once majestic body : the beautiful details of form, and 
those features of architectural ornament, which must have con¬ 
stituted the splendour of its magnificence, are all gone. Yet to 
the eye of a close examiner, enough still remains, to convince 
him that he is looking on the spot, within whose lines the hand 
of God wrote the denunciation against Babylon on the wall; in 
whose courts Daniel prophesied; and in whose palace-chambers 
Cyrus and Alexander entered as conquerors; and both, we have 
reason to believe, acknowledged the judgments of the Most 
* See Plate LXXV. 
