city wherein it flood,- and fo is concluded to have been 
two miles and a half in circumference. In this : wall were 
feverai gates leading into the temple, and all of folid brafs; 
which it is thought may have been made out of the brafen 
fea, and brafen pillars, and other ve(Tel's and ornaments of 
the kind, which Nebuchadnezzar had tranfported from 
Jerufalem ; for in this temple he is faid to have dedicated 
his fpoils fr -a that of Jerufalem. 
In this tem ple were feverai images or idols of maffy gold, 
and one of them, as we-have feen, forty feet in height ; 
the fame, as fuppofed, with that which Nebuchadnezzar 
confccr^ted in the plains of Dura. For, though this lad 
is faid to have beendixty cubits, or ninety feet, high, thefe 
dimenfions appear fo incredible, that it has been attempted 
to reconcile them into one, by fuppofing, that in the nine¬ 
ty feet the height of the pedeftal is included, and that the 
forty feet are for the height of the ftatue without the pe¬ 
deftal ; and, being laid to have weighed 1000 talents of 
Babylon, it is thence' computed, that it was worth three 
millions and a half of our money. In a word, the whole 
weight of the ftatues and decorations, in Diodorus Siculus, 
amounting to 5000 and odd talents in gold, the whole is 
_£(timated at above one and twenty millions of our money ; 
and a fum about equal to the fame, in treafure, utenfils, 
and other ornaments, is allowed for befides. 
But nothing was more wonderful at Babylon than the 
hanging-gardens, which Nebuchadnezzar made in com- 
plaifance to his wife Amyte ; who being a Mede, and re¬ 
taining a flrong inclination for the mountains and foreds 
of her own country, was defirous of having fomething 
like them at Babylon. They are faid to have contained a 
fquare of four plethra, or 400 feet, on each fide ; and to 
have confided of terraces one above another, carried up 
to the height of the wail of the city, the afeent from ter¬ 
race to terrace being by fleps ten feet wide. The whole 
pile confided of fubdantial arches upon arches, and Was 
ftrengthened by a wall furpounding it on every fide, twen¬ 
ty-two feet thick ; and the floors on each of them were 
laid in this order ; firfl, on the tops of the arches, a bed 
or pavement of dones fix teen feet long, and four feet 
broad ; over this was a layer of reed mixed with a quan¬ 
tity of bitumen ; and over this two courfes of brick, 
clofely cemented with plader ; and over all thefe were 
thick dieets of lead, and on thefe the earth or mould of 
the garden. This floorage was defigrred to retain the moif- 
ture of the mould; which was fo deep, as to give root to 
the greated trees which were planted upon every terrace, 
together with great variety of aromatic dirubs and flow¬ 
ers. Upon the uppermod of thefe terraces was a refer- 
voir, fupplied by an engine with water from the river,'from 
whence the gardens on the other terraces were watered. 
The other works attributed to Nebuchadnezzar by Be- 
rofusfend Abydenus, were the banks of the river, the ar¬ 
tificial" canals-, and the great artificial lake faid to have 
been funk by Semiramis. The canals were cut out'on the 
eaft fide of the Euphrates, !o conyey the water of the ri¬ 
ver, w hen it overflowed its banks, into the Tigris, before 
they reached Babylon. The lake was on the wed fide of 
Babylon; and, according, to the lovveft computation, forty 
miles fquare, 160 in compafs, and in depth thirty-five 
feet, as we read in Herodotus, or feventy-five according 
to Megadhenes ; the former, perhaps, meafured from the 
furface of the (ides, and the latter from the tops of tlie 
banks that were cad up upon them. This lake was dug 
to receive the waters of the river, while the banks were 
building on each fide of it. But both the lake and the 
canal which led to it, were preferved after the work was 
completed, being found of great life, not only to prevent 
overflowings, but to keep water all the year, as in a com¬ 
mon refervoir, to be let out, on proper occafions, by 
fluices, for the improvement of the land. Berofus, Me¬ 
gadhenes, and Abydenus, attribute all thefe works to Ne¬ 
buchadnezzar ; but Herodotus tells us, the bridge, the 
banks, and the lake, were the works'of queen Nitocris ; 
who may indeed have finifned what Nebuchadnezzar left 
BAB 
imperfect, and thence have had the honour this hiflorian 
gives her of the whole. 
The tower or temple dood till the time of Xerxes. But 
that prince, on his return from the Grecian expedition, 
having fird plundered it of its im'menfe wealth, demolifli- 
ed the whole, and laid it in raids. Alexander, on his 
return to Babylon from his Indian expedition, propofed 
to rebuild it, and accordingly fet xo,ooo men to.work to 
clear away the rubbidr. But, his death happening (bon 
after, a flop was put to all further proceedings. After 
the death o'f that conqueror, the city of Babylon began to, 
decline apace ; which was chiefly owing to the neighbour¬ 
hood of Sele'ucia, built by Seleucus Nicator, as is faid, out 
of refentment to the Babylonians, and peopled with 500,000 
perfons drawn from Babylon, which by that means conti¬ 
nued declining, till the very people of the country were 
at a lofs to tell where it had dood. 
Such is the defeription given by ancient hidorians of the 
grandeur of this city ; which, if this thefe accounts be 
not exaggerated,' mud have exceeded every other exam¬ 
ple of human magnificence in the world. Many of the 
moderns, however, gre of opinion that thefe deferiptions 
are very far from being,true ; although it is certain that 
few other arguments can- be brought againd the reality of 
them, than that we do not fee things of a fimilar kind ex¬ 
ecuted in pur own days; not confidering, that, in the pre- 
fent date of fociety, (Itch undertakings are utterly impof- 
fible. In the remote periods of antiquity, however, before 
fo many different monarchies were edablifhed, adding as a 
check upon each other; and when the all-conquering (word 
of one mighty prince had fubjected half the human race 
to Iris authority ; hud poffeffed himfeif of the richeft ter¬ 
ritories, and bed productions of the whole earth., there 
could be little difficulty, from the multiplicity of hands, 
and the infinity of wealth, fuch refources fupplied, of 
crediting the dupendous works of Babylon, even in the ut- 
inod extent that has been given them. This we have al¬ 
ready diewn, and we think in a fatisfaddory manner, by 
a comparifon of the famous Chinefe wall, with that of 
Babylon, under the article Architecture, in p. 66 of 
this volume, to which we beg to refer the reader. But 
as feme trades of the foundations and buildings of the an¬ 
cient city of Babylon have been recently difeovered, and 
exertion making to explore the fame, as announced in the 
public prints of Oddober 1797, it may be poffible, even at 
this diftant day, that many of the Teeming contradictions 
of the ancient hidorians may be reconciled, and the dif- 
puted fadds eftablifljed : in which cafe we (hall not fail to 
notice them, under the article Ruins. 
Babylon, anciently a town of Egypt near the eadern 
branch of the river Nile, now fuppofed to be Grand Cairo. 
BABYLO'NIA, or Chaldea, a kingdom of Ada, 
and the mod ancient in the world, being founded by Nim¬ 
rod the grandfon of Ham, who alfe, according to the 
margin of our Bibles, founded Nineveh the capital of the 
kingdom of Affyria. Indeed, thefe two kingdoms feem to 
have always continued in fuch a date of friendfhip, that 
we can fcarce help thinking they mud have been the fame, 
or perhaps Babylonia was for feme time a province of Af¬ 
fyria. Nothing certain is known concerning either of them, 
except what may be gathered from Scriptuie. From 
thence we learn, that in the days..of Abraham there was 
a king of Shinar, called Amrap/d , who, under the king 
of Elam or Peril a,- made war upon, the Canaanites. From 
this time we have 'nothing that can be depended upon till 
the days of Nabonaffer, the fird king of Babylon men¬ 
tioned in Ptolemy's canon. It is plain indeed, both from 
Scripture and prophane hiflory, that Babylonia fubfided 
as a diftindt kingdom from Affyria.feven when the latter 
was in all its glory. The mod probable account is this ; 
The empire of Affyria was founded by Pul, on the ruins 
of that of Damafcus or Syria; in the days of Menahem 
king of Judah. This king left two fens, Tiglath-Pileler, 
and Nabonaffer. To the former he bequeathed the empire 
of Affyria, and to the latter that of Babylon. Tiglath- 
Pilcfer 
