ON THE WESTERN BANK OF THE RIVER. 383 
namely, sixty miles in circumference; but according to the 
mean given by Major Rennel, in his Geography of Herodotus; 
who, assigning 10 stadia to one British mile, estimates that 
historian’s record of 480 stadia being the compass of Babylon, 
to be equal to 48 English miles. These limits, according to 
the same calculation, were marked by lines forming a perfect 
square, 12 miles in length and breadth, and composed of walls 
300 feet in height, 75 in thickness, and fenced by a ditch of 
similar amplitude. In a line of twelve miles, supposing the 
river to divide the city in two equal parts, we should have six 
miles of the twelve, on each bank ; and within this extent on the 
western side, we are called upon to place the temple of Belus. 
This will be found to be done with ease, with regard to the Birs 
Nimrood. Draw a line due west, from the village of Anana * 
to the extremity of the sixth mile at that point, and the Birs 
will be seen to stand full half a mile within that extreme western 
limit; or take a line still from that village, (which I select from 
its apparent central position, being immediately opposite the chief 
ruins of the great palace,) and draw it direct south to the same 
distance, and the Birs will be found still much more within that 
compass of the city. Presuming, then, these measurements 
proved, we find the Birs Nimrood, or Temple of Belus, in all 
respects considerably within the south-west angle of that half of 
the city which occupied the western plain of the Euphrates. 
I am aware of the commonly received opinion, that this cele¬ 
brated temple stood on the eastern side of the river ; arising 
rather unreasonably, it might seem, from the evidence of only 
one classic writer; and Diodorus Siculus, that writer, who had 
* See Plate LXXIV. 
