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where we inquired most particularly, was the modern town of Nahr Malka, marked in Major Rennel's map, known to the resident people of the country.

After a day of intolerable heat, the thermometer at noon standing at 117° in the inner division of the khan, and in the deepest shade, we prepared at sun-set to depart. On remounting, we continued our course about south-south-west, passing over a flat and barren country, intersected by many small canals, in which water from the Euphrates still remained, when, in about two hours, we came to the Khan of Hadjee Suliman. This building, said to have been erected by an Arab whose name it bears, is much inferior in size and exterior appearance to those we had passed. We intended to alight here, and take a cup of coffee; but we were told that the khan had lately been deserted. We procured some good river water, however, from the villagers there, and proceeded on our

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It was about ten o'clock when we reached the Khan of Mohāwil, when we alighted to repose for the night, having been led to understand that the ruins of Babylon begin to be visible soon after ing this spot, and wishing, therefore, to pass over it by daylight. We found this khan to resemble that of Scandereeah, in its general design, and to be nearly as large. Like it, too, this was chiefly constructed of ancient bricks procured from the neighbourhood; and repairs of the platforms were now going on, with large square furnace-baked bricks of a reddish colour, brought up from the Kassr, at Babel, as the Sheikh told us, and bought with money.

I had thus far been constantly regarded as the Arab guide of Mr. Bellino, and had been always received as such; but here, as we sat together in the caravanserai, the joke went still further. I was asked, who was the stranger I had taken under my protection? and on replying that he was an Englishman, it was asked how much I was to be paid for my journey, when I had carried him out and brought him again to his home in safety? I named a certain sum ; and it was then told me that there was a fine young colt, of a high

bred Zobeide race, to be sold in the village, and that if I was disposed to buy it, I might make a profitable bargain; the parties adding, that if I had not immediately the requisite sum in my own purse, my protegé would no doubt advance me sufficient money on account. A long conversation followed, relating to this proposal, at which, when it was translated to him, Mr. Bellino was as much amused as myself; but it was not without considerable difficulty that I was able to escape their pressing importunities to purchase the young colt, for which they thought my European charge could so readily pay. These people behaved, however, with the greatest possible respect to us both, after it was made known to them that the stranger was one of the household of the Balios Bek, (this being the title by which the English Resident is known at Bagdad,) and to this they added the gratuitous supposition that I was of some noble family of Shereefs in Nedjed, and had been chosen for his guide on account of my high descent.

JULY 26th. We departed from Mohāwil with the rising of the sun, having, though thus early, been furnished before we mounted, with a good breakfast of bread and lebben. Soon after quitting this khan, we passed over a canal, filled with water from the Euphrates, and having a small bridge thrown across its stream. We now began to perceive some small mounds, particularly one on the right, and another on the left of the road, of a size and form resembling the smallest of those seen at Nineveh, and like these preserving but few definite marks, by which to characterize the ruins of which they were the wreck.

That these were heaps formed by the decay of buildings, was evident from the presence of brick and broken pottery scattered near them; but we saw neither writing, reeds, nor bitumen, the great characteristics of the Babylonian buildings. Our examination was, however, too cursorily made for us to decide that such characteristics did not exist, or that the heaps we now saw were not of equal antiquity with those which are decidedly known to have formed

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part of Babylon itself. The distance of them from Hillah, about eight miles, would not exclude them from the site of that celebrated city, even according to the reduced computation of its area; and we therefore conceived, that they might be the remains of some portion of the famous walls, towards the northern extremity of their limit.*

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* "Babylon was a very great and a very ancient city, as well as Nineveh. It is indeed generally reckoned less than Nineveh; for, according to Strabo, it was only three hundred and eighty-five furlongs in compass, or three hundred and sixty according tot Diodorus Siculus, or three hundred and sixty-eight according to Quintus Curtius; but Herodotus, who was an older author than any of them, represents it of the same dimensions as Nineveh, that is four hundred and eighty furlongs, or above sixty miles in compass; but the difference was, that Nineveh was constructed in the form of a parallelogram, and Babylon was an exact square, each side being one hundred and twenty furlongs in length. So that, according to this account, Babylon contained more ground in it than Nineveh did; for, multiplying the sides the one by the other, it will be found that Nineveh contained within its walls only thirteen thousand five hundred furlongs, and that Babylon contained fourteen thousand four hundred. It was, too, as ancient, or more ancient, than Nineveh, for in the words of Moses, speaking of Nimrod, (Gen. x. 10.) it was the beginning of his kingdom,' that is the first city, or the capital city in his dominions. Several heathen authors say, that Semiramis, but most (as § Quintus Curtius asserts,) that Belus built it: and Belus was very probably the same as Nimrod. But whoever was the first founder of this city, we may reasonably suppose that it received very great improvements afterwards, and Nebuchadnezzar particularly repaired and enlarged and beautified it to such a degree, that he may in a manner be said to have built it as he boasted himself, (Dan. iv. 30.) Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty ?' Nor is this asserted only in Scripture, but is likewise attested by heathen authors, Megasthenes, Berosus, and Abydenus, whose words are quoted by || Josephus and Eusebius. By one means or other, Babylon became so great and famous a city as

† περιβαλετο τείχος τῇ πόλει σταδίων τριακοσίων ἑξήκοντα. CCCLX stadiorum muro urbem circumdedit. Diod. Sic. lib. ii. p. 68. Edit. Steph. p. 95. Edit. Rhod. Totius operis ambitus CCCLXVIII stadia complectitur. Quint. Curt. lib. v. cap. 1.

† κείται εν πεδια μεγάλω, μεγαθος εουσα, μείωπον έκαστον, εικοσι και εκατον σταδίων, εούσης τεραίωνου. στοι στάδιοι της περιόδου της πολιος γινονται συναπαντες ογδώκοντα και τετρακοσιοι. oppidum situm est in planitie ingenti, forma quadrata, magnitudine quoquo versus centenûm vicenûm stadiorum, in summa quadringentorum et octoginta, in circuitu quatuor laterum urbis. Herod. lib. i. cap. 178. p. 74. Edit. Gale. § Semiramis eam condiderat : vel, ut plerique credidere. Belus. Quint. Curt. ibid.

|| Joseph. Antiq. lib. x. cap. 11, sect. 1, p. 459. Edit. Hudson. Euseb. Præpar. Evang. lib. ix. cap. 41. p. 457. Edit. Vigeri.

Our way from thence presented us with nothing worthy of peculiar notice, excepting here and there scattered fragments of pottery and bricks, with many canals, some apparently ancient, and others modern, which crossed our way at intervals, all of them leading from the Euphrates in an easterly direction towards the Tigris, and no doubt originally connecting the waters of both these great rivers.

It was about seven o'clock when we came abreast of the high mound, called by the natives, "El Mujellibe," from the Arabic, Mukallibe, or Makloube, as Europeans have more frequently written it, signifying "overturned.” * This is nearly visible all the way

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to give name to a very large empire; and it is called in Scripture (Dan. iv. 30.) 'great Babylon:' (Isa. xlii. 19.) the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency;' (Isa. xiv. 4.) the golden city;' (Isa. xlvii. 5.) the lady of kingdoms;' (Jer. li. 13.) abundant in treasures;' (Jer. li. 41.) the praise of the whole earth ;' and its beauty, strength, and grandeur; its walls, temples, palaces, and hanging gardens, the banks of the river, and the artificial canals and lake made for the draining of that river, in the seasons of its overflowings, are described with such pomp and magnificence by heathen authors, that it might deservedly be reputed one of the wonders of the world. The fullest and best account of these things in English is to be found in the second book of that very valuable and very useful work, Dr. Prideaux's Connection. Though Babylon was seated in a low watery plain, yet in Scripture (Jer. li. 25.) it is called 'a mountain,' on account of the great height of its walls and towers, its palaces and temples and † Berosus, speaking of some of its buildings, saith that they appeared most like mountains. Its gates of brass,' and its broad walls,' are particularly mentioned in Scripture: (Isa. xlv. 2. Jer. li. 58.) and the city ‡ had an hundred gates, twenty-five on each side, all made of solid brass; and its walls, according to § Herodotus, were three hundred and fifty feet in height, and eighty-seven in thickness, and six chariots could go abreast upon them, as || Diodorus affirms after Ctesias.”—Newton on the Prophecies, pp. 158-160.

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Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: it shall never be inhabited, neither shall

†τny ov añodovs oμolotatηy tois opeσquibus speciem dedit montibus persimilem. Joseph. Antiq. ibid.

Herod. lib. i. cap. 179, p. 74. Edit. Gale.

§ Herod. ibid. cap. 178. Prideaux, ibid.

|| ώσε το μεν πλατος είναι των τειχων ἐξ ἁρμασιν ἱπποσιμον. ut manium latitudo sex juxta curribus vehendis sufficeret. Diod, Sic. lib. ii. p. 68. Edit. Steph. p. 96. Edit. Rhod.

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