386 
RUINS OF BABYLON 
it appears incredible ; when supposed to be built in the style 
of European cities, in a close compact plan of houses, in 
streets and squares, pressing upon each other. But on recol¬ 
lecting that the countries of ancient and modern Asia from the 
earliest times we have note on the subject, have adopted quite 
a different manner ; erecting their capitals, though with narrow 
streets in front of the houses, yet with wide spaces on their sides 
and behind, containing courts and gardens ; it may be reason¬ 
ably concluded, that a very large place in outward appearance, 
might contain a comparatively scanty population. But with 
regard to Babylon in particular, we learn from Herodotus and 
others, that Nebuchadnezzar extended its enormous boundaries, 
professedly to exceed in that respect the past grandeur of 
Nineveh, whose proud bulwarks he had assisted in levelling to 
the ground. To fill so immense an area with inhabitants, he 
brought captives from all quarters of the world ; who, doubtless, 
would also be made the chief instruments in rearing its walls, 
digging its trenches, and raising most of those stupendous ob¬ 
jects which now stand as beacons of the land of Shinar. But 
Herodotus himself informs us, that notwithstanding all these 
expedients, it never was either fully built upon, nor half in¬ 
habited. In short, from the period of its aggrandizement by 
Nebuchadnezzar, to its conquest by Cyrus, time was not sufficient 
to compass these great objects ; and he, in little more than 25 
years after the death of the haughty destroyer of Jerusalem, re¬ 
moved the royal seat of government from Babylon to Susa. Hence, 
from the first of its enlargement by Nebuchadnezzar, until its 
final abandonment to waste and wilderness, immense gardens, 
parks, and spaces for husbandry and pasturage, were to be found 
within the walls of this vast city; or rather, as it might have been 
