392 
RUINS OF BABYLON. 
buildings were left, and where none had stood, all seemed equally 
naked of vegetation ; the whole ground appearing as if it had 
been washed over and over again, by the coming and receding 
waters, till every bit of genial soil was swept away ; its half-clay, 
half-sandy surface being left in ridgy streaks, like what is often 
seen on the flat shores of the sea, after the retreating of the tide. 
Having ridden an hour, we took a direction due east, crossing, 
at different distances, three other canals in a course from north 
to south ; the last of the three was very wide, and not more than 
a mile from A1 Hymer, the whole of which intervening space is 
covered with broken bricks, pottery, glass, and all the other 
usual relics of Babylonian ruins. When we reached the great 
mound itself, which had long been a conspicuous object above 
the horizon, I found it to be pyramidal, with numerous depen¬ 
dant smaller mounds. Its base was nearly circular, in circum¬ 
ference 276 yards, and in height about 60. One-third of its 
elevation is composed of unburnt brick, the rest of the pile of that 
which has passed through the fire. A large and solid mass of 
the latter surmounts the whole, standing clear from any of the 
loose rubbish which so abundantly encumbers its base. The 
fire-baked bricks on the outside, by some cause have become 
extremely soft; and I should ascribe that effect to their complete 
exposure to the external air, they there break with ease on the 
slightest force ; but on penetrating into the solid building, I 
found them as hard as any others of Babylonia. In broad square 
surface, they exceeded those of the Birs and the Kasr, nearly 
three quarters of an inch; but the thickness was not more than 
in those of the Birs. The whole of this mass, as it stands 
on its rounded ruin-encumbered foundation, presents four 
straight faces, but unequal and mutilated, looking towards the 
cardinal points. That to the south measures 39 feet, the north 
