admitted that the fabric was in a considerable state of forwardness at the Confusion, and that it could have sustained no great damage at the time when the building of Babel, or Babylon, was recommenced. The ruin called Birs Nemroud, which now exists, and is undoubtedly the most ancient building in the world, is understood to be the remains of this celebrated tower; yet travellers have held various opinions on this subject, and three different masses of building have each been named as the remains of the tower of Babel, namely, Nimrod's Hill at Akkerkoof; the Mujelibè, about nine hundred and fifty yards east of the Euphrates, and five miles above the modern town of Hillah; and the Birs Nemroud, already mentioned, to the west of that river, and about six miles to the south-west of Hillah. There is, in short, no end of conjectures, but we may safely assume that all the ruins, with the exception of the Birs Nemroud, described most elaborately and dogmatically by some authors, are the remains of structures subsequently reared by the Arabs and other predatory tribes, or the faint traces of towns which have now no existence, or monuments of antiquity, the shapeless ruins of which alike defy the researches of the ingenious and the persevering. We shall therefore limit our inquiries to the Tel Nimrood, or the Hill of Nimrod, at Akkerkoof, the Mujelibè, and the Birs Nemroud.

The inspired historian informs us, that the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was "Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the Land of Shinar." These were certainly Nimrod's principal towns. As the greatest kingdoms in those times seldom consisted of more than a single town and the surrounding district, we may reasonably conclude that Nimrod's kingdom was comprehended within very narrow limits at its commencement, and that those most ancient cities must have been at no great distance from each other. From the arrangement in the sacred history, this Babel, mentioned as the first postdiluvian city of which we have

any record, was the original of that great city which afterwards became celebrated as the capital of the Babylonian Empire. The town, however, founded there by Nimrod could have been of little importance; and what was of it, if any buildings were erected, was probably lost after the Confusion, with the exception of the tower left in its unfinished state. But the three other cities remained, although we have no information concerning their state, and their sites are now almost lost, or left to conjectural probabilities. It is generally admitted that the city Accad of the Scriptures, built by Nimrod, is the Sittace of the Greeks, and the Akkerkoof of modern times. It is situated about nine miles west from the Tigris, at a place where that river makes its nearest approach to the Euphrates, and its subsequent names of Sittace and Akkerkoof, both of which contain elements of the name Accad, clearly identify it with its original. Here a remarkable monument is in existence, which the Arabs to this day call Tel Nemrood, and the Turks Nemrood Tepassé, both of which appellations signify the Hill of Nimrod. It consists of a large mound, surmounted by a mass of building which resembles a tower at a distance, or an irregular pyramid, according to the point from which it is viewed. This mass is three hundred feet in circumference at the bottom, and rises upwards of one hundred and twentyfive feet above the elevated mound on which it stands; and the mound which constitutes the foundation of this structure is, like most of the ruins of Babylon, supposed to be rubbish formed by the decay of the superstructure. The different layers of sun-dried bricks, of which this tower is composed, can be distinctly traced, cemented together by lime or bitumen, and divided into courses varying from twelve to twenty feet in height. The solid and lofty appearance of this pile renders it probable that it was one of those immense edifices erected for the worship of the heavenly bodies built more or less after the model of the great Tower of Babel. The worship of the

heavenly bodies originated in the country in which this pile exists, and buildings of this description appear to have been common in the primitive cities of the Plain of Shinar. The Tel Nimrood, therefore, probably indicates the site of Accad, or some other ancient town; but it has no pretensions to be considered, as some travellers allege it to be, the Tower of Babel, or the temple of Belus.

The Mujelibè, or Mujellibah, which means The Overturned, is the other rival of the Birs Nemroud, and has been considered as the remains of the Tower of Babel by Della Valle, who visited Babylon in 1616, D'Anville, Rennell, Sir John Macdonald Kinneir, and more recently Captain Mignan, who visited Babylon in 1827; but it is to be observed that only the two latter gentlemen had any distinct information respecting the Birs Nemiroud. The Mujelibè is a name given by the natives to an immense solid mound forming an oblong square, composed of kiln-burnt and sun-dried bricks, rising irregularly to the height of one hundred and thirty-nine feet, whence it slopes towards the northeast to a depth of a hundred and ten feet. Its sides face the four cardinal points. Captain Mignan says that he measured them exactly, and found that the visible face towards the north was 274 yards in length; to the south, 256 yards; to the east, 226 yards; and to the west, 240 yards. This statement, however, differs from that of Sir R. K. Porter, who says that the measurement along the face of the side looking towards the north is 552 feet, that to the south 230, that to the east 230, and that to the west 551. The summit is described as a broad and uneven flat, strewed with broken and entire bricks, the latter measuring thirteen inches square by three thick. Many of these bricks exhibited the arrow-headed character, which appeared remarkably fresh. Bitumen, pottery, vitrified and petrified brick, shells and glass, are abundant; and the materials of which the ruin is composed appear to be mud bricks baked in the sun and mixed up with clay, which was the great commodity employed in

building during ancient times, this mode of making bricks being of the greatest antiquity. On its summit there are con siderable traces of an erect building; and at the west-end there is a mass of solid brick-work, sloping towards the top, and rising from a confused heap of rubbish. The chief material of which this fabric is composed seems to be similar to that of Akkerkoof a mixture of chopped straw, with slime used as cement, and regular layers of unbroken reeds between the horizontal courses of the bricks. The base is considerably injured by time, espe cially towards the south-east, where it is cleft from top to bottom into a deep furrow. "The sides of the ruins," says Captain Mignan, "exhibit hollows worn partly by the weather, but more generally by the Arabs, who are incessantly digging for bricks, and hunting for antiquities. Several of the excavations I entered, and have no reason to suppose that they are inhabited by such ferocious animals as the generality of travellers assert. There certainly was an offensive smell, and the caves were strewed with bones of sheep and goats, devoured most probably by the jackals that resort thither in great numbers, and thousands of bats and owls have filled many of these cavities. The natives are very reluctant to follow the visitor into these dens, and dislike remaining near the ruins after sunset, rather from the fear of demons and evil spirits than from any attack of lions or other wild beasts. Indeed, by their account there are not half-a-dozen lions within thirty miles round Babel, though about sixty miles below Hillah, on the banks of the river, in a considerable patch of brushwood, those animals are very numerous. It appears that the only risk attendant on entering the recesses in all the mounds is the liability of being stung by venomous reptiles." The Mujelibè is also called Harût and Marût, from a tradition handed down that near the foot of the ruin there is a well invisible to mortals, in which those two rebellious angels mentioned in the Koran were condemned by God to be hung with their heels upwards

until the day of judgment, as a punish ment for their wickedness. A Mahometan writer says, that at no great distance there is an excavation usually known as the well of the Prophet Daniel, which was in his time much frequented both by Jews and Christians on certain of their anniversary festivals.

Mr Rich, the late British resident at Bagdad, in his "Visit to Babylon," says that he discovered a wooden coffin containing a skeleton in high preservation near the summit of the northern part of the Mujelibè, and a little further the skeleton of a child was found. The question then is, what the immense pile called the Mujelibe, or the overturned, could have been, for it may be observed that the grand dimensions of both the Birs and the Mujelibè correspond with that of the Tower of Belus, the circumference of which, if we take the stadium at five hundred feet, was two thousand feet; that of the Birs is two thousand two hundred and eighty-six feet, and that of the Mujelibè two thousand one hundred and eleven, which in both instances is a remarkable approximation, affording no greater difference than is easily accounted for by our ignorance of the exact proportion of the stadium, and by the enlargement which the latter must have undergone by the crumbling of the materials. Mr Rich thinks that in some respects the Mujelibè would answer sufficently well to the accounts of the cele. brated Hanging Gardens, which, according to Strabo, formed a square of four hundred feet on each face, and stood upon the river, from which it was supplied with water. Sir R. K. Porter is of opinion that, from its general appearance, its solid elevation was never much higher than it stands at present, and says that he has no doubt of its having been a ground-work or magnificent raised platform, like that of Persepolis, though there it was of the native rock, to sustain habitable buildings of consequence. The huge mass stands wholly unconnected with any other whatever, excepting the remains of some protecting lines

of wall or embankment, which at certain distances surround it on three of its sides

the east, north, and west, the mass itself being distant from the Euphrates little more than half a mile. After a close and minute examination, Sir R. K. Porter was satisfied that it never was intended to be the base for a pyramidal succession of towers. "Had one such stage," he says, "ever existed, we should have found a slight elevation at least towards the middle of the summit, but instead of that essential feature, it unites there in a deep hollow. There is also another reason against its having any pretension to the name with which some writers would distinguish it, that of being the remains of the Temple of Belus, because its size considerably exceeds the single stadium specified by the ancients as the base of that Tower. Besides, there are no traces whatever of any buildings near it, which seems necessary to make its adjacent ruins answer to the structures dedicated by Nebuchadnezzar to the great central worship of his favourite deity. But with regard to what the Mujelibè really was, my ideas are to be drawn from what I saw, when compared with certain representations I have read concerning Babylon. All ancient authors who have written on this subject speak of its For tified Palace, by which title we must understand a fortified space of sufficient extent to contain the terraced habitation of the sovereign, with his courts of pomp and ceremony, his private temples to the gods, his personal treasury, and residences for his officers of state, and, besides strong lodgments on the embattled surrounding walls, a fortress or citadel to garrison the royal body guard. The situation and style of the Mujelibè seem to mark it out to have been the citadel of this embattled place. With regard to the Mujelibè having originally been intended for a place of sepulture, had it been so, the magnificence of its dimensions would have demanded its dedication to the sovereigns of Babylon, and in that case surely some of the

ancient writers in describing the city must have mentioned it. But that the remains of the illustrious dead may occasionally be found in embattled towers and walls, without any extraordinary military circumstances having rendered such an interment necessary-the arbitrary directions of the deceased having alone compelled the unusual place of sepulchre-we have at least one instance from history to support, and the personage is Nitocris, queen of Babylon. It is related that she caused her own monument to be built over one of the most distinguished gates of the city, with an inscription 'conjuring all who might have the power, as they valued their own future peace, never to bring themselves into the necessity of invading that tomb for the treasures it might contain. One of the early monarchs (Darius), after the subversion of the Babylonian Empire by Cyrus, broke open the tomb, but instead of the riches that were expected, found only a scroll with something of these words: If thou hadst not a most improvident, sordid, and avaricious soul, thou wouldst never have violated the rest of the dead.' The great gates of these pre-eminent Asiatic cities were in themselves fortresses." It seems therefore to be agreed by most of the travellers who have visited the spot, that the large masses of ruins called Mujelibè, on the east bank of the Euphrates, are the remains of the fortified palace. The lines of defence surrounding it are visible even at the present day, inclosing also the Mujelibè, which must evidently be considered as parts of the palace, or at least connected with the palace, and not as the Temple of Belus. The palace, then, supposing that Herodotus did not affect extreme accuracy in speaking of an inclosure so extensive, might be said to be in the centre of the eastern quarter, and, according to the ruins still existing, on the banks of the Euphrates. The only way in which we can account for the entire destruction of the walls is by supposing that all the cities within a reasonable distance of Babylon, which have been built out of its ruins, have had

their materials chiefly taken thence. Some of the rubbish may have been thrown by the inhabitants into the ditch, and the rains of many centuries may have washed down the earth, and completely obliterated all traces of the walls.

It is thus generally admitted that the Birs Nemroud was the Temple of Belus, which contained the celebrated Tower called Babel; at least there is not one of all the masses of ruins found in the neighbourhood which so exactly corresponds with the description of that tower. Finding that Babylon was subsequently famous for a stupendous tower, which is described as an object of wonder equal to the Egyptian Pyramids, we may safely infer that the original tower of Babel formed at least the nucleus of that renowned tower which stood in the midst of the magnificent temple built by Nebuchadnezzar in honour of Belus. This prince, who began his reign a little more than six hundred years before the Christian era, resolved to render this extraordinary ruin the principal ornament of the city which he was proud to embellish. There can be little doubt that he preserved the original form, for it would not only have caused vast expense and labour to alter it, but the form it afterwards bore is that which would hardly in those times have been thought of, being most characteristic, in its simplicity and proportions, not only of very ancient, but of the most ancient constructed masses known to exist on the earth. is the first historian who describes the Temple of Belus in an authentic manner, but he did not see it till thirty years after Xerxes, king of Persia, had damaged it to a very considerable extent. That his torian describes its precincts as sacred inclosures dedicated to Jupiter Belus, consisting of a regular square of two stadia or one thousand feet on each side, adorned with gates of brass. In the midst of this area rose a massive tower, the length and breadth of which was five hundred feet on each side, and upon this rose one tower upon another, until the entire number amounted to eight; and

Herodotus

because each tower decreased gradually to the top, Strabo calls the whole a pyramid. It was built of the same materials of which the Scriptures tell us the Tower of Babel was constructed-bricks and bitumenand is alleged to have exceeded in height the greatest of the Egyptian Pyramids. Herodotus does not mention the elevation, but Strabo, who concurs with him in the dimensions of the basement tower, adds that the whole structure was a stadium or furlong in height. The ascent to the top, we are farther told by Herodotus, was by steps formed on the outside, winding up to each tower in the exact manner commonly represented in modern engravings, which turned by slow degrees in a spiral line eight times round the tower from the bottom to the top, and had the same appearance as if there had been eight towers placed one upon another. In the middle of every flight a resting-place was provided, with seats. In the different compartments or storeys were many rooms with arched roofs supported by pillars, which became so many parts of the temple when the Tower became consecrated to idolatrous purposes. The upper story was that most sacred, containing a magnificent chamber expressly dedicated to Belus, furnished with a splendid couch, near which was a table of gold, but there was no statue, the deity being supposed to inhabit it at his pleasure. Rollin, however, says, that "the riches of this temple in statues, tables, censors, cups, and other sacred vessels, all of massy gold, were immense. Among other images, there was one forty feet high, which weighed one thousand Babylonish talents." The Babylonish talent, according to Rollin-who refers to Pollux, an ancient writer, as his authority-contained seven thousand Attic drachmas, and was therefore a sixth part more than the Attic talent, which contained six thousand drachmas. Diodorus makes the riches amassed in the Temple of Belus to amount to 6300 talents of gold; the sixth part of 6300 is 1050, consequently, 6300 Babylonish talents are equivalent to 7350 Attic talents of gold. "Now,

7350 Attic talents of silver,” adds Rollin," are worth upwards of L.2,100,000 sterling. The proportion between gold and silver among the ancients we reckon as ten to one; therefore 7350 Attic talents of gold amount to above L.21,000,000 sterling." Xerxes, on his return from his Grecian expedition, plundered this temple of its immense riches. Diodorus Siculus farther says, that over the whole of the top of the tower there was an observatory, the Babylonians being celebrated for their skill in astronomy beyond other nations.

Bochart supposes that the ancient Tower of Babel, as built by Nimrod and his followers, stood within this temple-a suggestion which has every appearance of authenticity from this circumstance, that when Alexander the Great took Babylon, Callisthenes, a philosopher who accompanied him, found that they had astronomical observation for 1903 years from that time, which carried up the antiquity of the original tower as high as the one hundred and fifteenth year after the Flood, or within fifteen years, according to the Bible chronology, after Babel was built. Till the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the Temple of Belus contained only this tower, but that splendid prince enlarged it by erecting edifices round it in a square of two furlongs on every side, and a mile in circumference, exceeding the square of the Temple of Jerusalem by eighteen hundred feet; and a wall inclosed the whole of these buildings, which is computed to have been two miles and a half in circumference. This wall contained several gates of solid brass, supposed to have been formed out of the Brazen Sea, Brazen Pillars, and other vessels and ornaments carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar from the Temple of Jerusalem; for in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar entered Judea, and besieged Jerusalem, which he took, and carried the king in fetters a captive to Babylon, with his mother, his wives, his officers, and the "mighty in the land ;" and "he carried out thence all the treasures of the Lord, and the