PALACES, OLD AND NEW. 3^5 
High God : in fact, that the fortune of heroes is the providence of 
God. 
We are told by Aristobulus, the physician of Alexander, in 
the journal he made of the illness of which that prince died 
at Babylon, that on the twenty-fifth day of his fever he removed 
from his residence on one side of the river, to another on the 
opposite shore, in which latter he breathed his last. This ac¬ 
count certainly corroborates those which speak of two palaces, 
placing them one on either bank of the Euphrates ; the largest 
being attributed to Nebuchadnezzar, and styled the New; the 
less to the earliest sovereigns of Babylon, and therefore called 
the Old. But in which of these it was that Alexander expired, 
it may not now be easy to conjecture ; though, indeed, that a 
second palace ever existed, has lately been doubted, from the 
circumstance of no ruins having yet been traced on the western 
shore, of any dimensions answerable to that assigned to either 
palace: in short, excepting those of Birs Nimrood, it has gene¬ 
rally been received, that there are scarcely any vestiges of ruins 
at all. These impressions did not, however, prevail on me to 
quit the near neighbourhood of that vast, and alleged trackless 
desert, without searching myself for every possible trace of ob¬ 
jects connected with the evidences of this sacredly classic ground. 
Believing, from actual measurement, and the relative appearance 
and situation of all its parts, that without a doubt the position 
of the new and great palace built by Nebuchadnezzar was that 
I had examined on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, I now 
determined on recrossing to the western shore, and there, by 
perhaps a little adventurous exploring, see what it might 
produce. 
November 12th. —- This morning I visited the Kiahya Bey in 
