fore more likely to represent Borsippa than the Tower of Belus.

There is one fact in connexion with the most remarkable of these relics which we cannot dismiss without a few more observations. All travellers who have ascended the Birs have taken notice of the singular heaps of brickwork scattered on the summit of the mound, at the foot of the remnant of wall still standing. To the writer of this volume they appeared the most striking of all the ruins. That they have undergone the most violent action of fire, is evident from the complete vitrification which has taken place in many of the masses. Yet how a heat sufficient to produce such an effect could have been applied at such a height from the ground, is unaccountable. They now lie upon a spot elevated 200 feet above the plain, and must have fallen from some much more lofty position, for the structure which still remains, and of which they may be supposed to have originally formed a part, bears no mark of fire. The building originally cannot have contained any great proportion of combustible materials; and to produce so intense a heat by substances carried to such an elevation would have been almost impossible, from the want of space to pile them on. Nothing, we should be inclined to say, short of the most powerful action of electric fire, could produce the complete yet circumscribed fusion which is here observed; for that the melted masses have had some connexion with the building yet remaining cannot be doubted. Of such a catastrophe we have no record, unless we accept as such the prophecy of Jeremiah,* "and her high gates shall be burned with fire;" but there are many events connected with the history of this city which remain in total obscurity, and this, we are inclined to think, must be placed among them. These fragments are of various hues, brown, yellow, and gray. Although fused into a solid mass, the courses of bricks are still visible, identifying them with the standing pile above; but so hardened have they been by the power of heat, that it is almost impossible to break off the smallest piece; and, though porous in texture, and full of air-holes and cavities, like other bricks, they require, on being submitted to the stone-cutter's lathe, the same machinery as is used to

* Chap. li., 58.

dress the hardest pebbles. Their specific gravity is very great, and they are capable of receiving a very good polish.

From the statements now made, it is obvious that, however much has been written on the subject, the locality of ancient Babylon is as yet but very imperfectly understood: a circumstance which arises chiefly from the difficulty of residence, and of making the necessary observations upon the spot, so that no traveller hitherto has been able to devote to the examination of the ruins themselves, as well as of the circumjacent country, that time and attention which are indispensable for illustrating so obscure a subject. But matters will probably not remain long thus. Something has already been done towards removing the obstacles that have hitherto existed: the Euphrates expedition has familiarized the Arabs on the banks of that river with the sight of Europeans; and we know that even now there are in those regions travellers peculiarly well qualified by intelligence, zeal, and perseverance for prosecuting these interesting investigations. Hence there is good ground to hope that the secrets of ancient Mesopotamia and Babylonia, historical, geographical, and antiquarian, will ere long be laid at least as open to the present generation as those of Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

CHAPTER VII.

Other Ruins of Babylonia and Chaldea.

Akkerkoof.-The Site of Accad.-Umgeyer-According to some Opinions, the ancient Orchoe.-Jibel Sanam.-Teredon.-Workha.-Sunkhera. -Yokha.-Til Eide.-Guttubeh.-Iskhuriah.-Zibliyeh.-Tel Siphr, &c.-Waasut or Cascara.-Seleucia and Ctesiphon-Tauk e Kesra. -Cupidity of a Pacha.-Kalla mal Kesra.-Opis, Situation of.-Median Wall.-Traditions regarding its Use.--Sittace.-Sheriat el Beitha. Samarra.-The Malwiyah.-Large Mosque.- Kaf or Chaf.Giaoureah.-Kadesia.-Statue of black Basalt.-Tecreet.-Al Hadhr or Hatra. Felugia.-New Fields of Enterprise for Explorers

NEXT to the ruins just described, and as certainly contemporary with them, we must notice the isolated but enormous pile of Akkerkoof or Aggerkoof, called also Tel Nimrod, and by the Turks Nimrod Tepessi. Sir R. Porter says the former name is only applied to the district around it. It is six miles from Bagdad, and stands upon a hillock that slopes gently upward from the level of the plain to a considerable height, above which it rises to an elevation of about 125 feet. Its general resemblance to the Birs Nimrod struck Mr. Rich forcibly; and the mass of the building, which is solid, is composed of unburned bricks mixed with chopped straw, having layers of reeds two inches thick between every five or six courses. These

our.

reeds protrude from the weather-worn edges of the bricks, communicating to the profile of the edifice a singular serrated look, visible from a distance. In appearance they are still perfectly fresh, differing only from those that grow in the circumjacent marshes in being a little darker in colAs in the Birs, there are also here square holes running through the body of the pile, as if to afford ventilation. The shape is now so irregular, owing to the effect of time, that its original form can scarcely be detected; but it seems to have been a square, the sides of which faced the cardinal points. The circumference, taken above the mound of rubbish, is 300 feet, and the diameter at the largest part about 100. The mound consists of loose sandy earth, probably drifted by the wind, mingled with fragments

of brick, pottery, and half-vitrified clay. Like the Birs, it has a mound of debris on the eastern side; and this is supposed to indicate the site of Accad, one of the cities of Nimrod: a conjecture which is thought to be supported by its position with reference to Babylon, by the name of Akkerkoof, and the tradition which ascribes it to the mighty hunter. Embankments, and the usual debris, testify to its having been a considerable town; while its vicinity to Bagdad accounts sufficiently for the disappearance of its furnacebricks and all transportable materials.

The remaining antiquities of Babylonia will not detain us long, as, though some may represent places of importance, they do not possess the great interest which attaches to the capital or to Nineveh. We shall mention a few of the most remarkable.

Following the course of the Euphrates, we find upon its right bank, about twenty-five miles southeast of Semava, and ten or eleven from the river-bank, the most perfect remains of one of those lofty edifices which, like the Birs and Akkerkoof, are supposed to have been Chaldean temples. It is called Mugeyer or Umgeyer, which in Arabic signifies "the place of bitumen;" and as it has not as yet, we believe, been described, if, indeed, it has ever before been visited by any modern traveller, we shall here introduce an account of it derived from personal inspection. It is a huge quadrangular building, rising to the height of eighty or a hundred feet above the plain, from a great mass of dilapidated matter. The lower half was hid from view by these ruins, out of which the mason-work emerged in two distinct stories. The sides, which faced the cardinal points, were on the west full sixty yards in length, and on the north about forty; there being no means at hand for more accurate measurement. The structure resembles that of the Birs, but there was no such fine masonry as appears on the top of the latter. The bricks were coarser and softer; many were marked with the arrow-headed character, and in most cases laid together in very thick beds of bitumen, which bore the impression of the matted reeds. The workmanship, on the whole, was very good, and much of it quite perfect, as there have not been any materials abstracted from it as at Babylon. The mass is pervaded with small holes as is the Birs; and a circular one was observed on the top, at present filled with rubbish,

but which may possibly descend into the building. The northern and western faces exhibited two distinct stories, the upper diminishing in extent as in some of the Indian pagodas, which it a good deal resembled; but the bricks were so altered by long exposure to the weather, that it was impossible to pronounce whether those that now met the eye constituted part of the original outside coating or not. Looking from the top, vestiges of a wall of no great thickness could be traced, apparently forming an enclosure to the building. Its north face, the only one at all perfect, measured 118 long paces; of the rest, only the corners were visible, and near the southeastern angle rose a pretty large conical mound, like the ruins of a bastion. There were many others about it, especially towards the southeast; and the earth was extensively covered with ruins, among which were fragments of sepulchral vases sticking out of the ground, flints, pebbles, and numerous pieces of old copper. The whole character of this edifice testifies that it must be coeval with the Birs. Mr. Ainsworth has pronounced it to be the ancient Orchoe of the Chaldeans, of the situation of which we know little; but there is rather more reason for believing that city to be represented by the ruins of Workha, in Chaldea Proper, and to which we shall soon allude. Mugeyer is also believed to stand on the banks of the ancient Pallacopas; but the exact course of that canal has not been traced in modern times, and there was nothing seen from the top of the ruin to confirm the idea. There were, however, one or two lofty mounds observed to the westward, bearing much the appearance of the place itself when first seen above the horizon; but circumstances did not permit us to visit them.

Of the remains to the south and eastward of this place little is known, although there is every reason to believe that relics abound in the course of the Pallacopas. Jibel Sanam, which marks the site of the ancient Teredon, a city built by Nebuchadnezzar at the mouth of that outlet of the Euphrates, is described as a true Babylonian mound of prodigious size, lofty, and of infinitely greater extent than the Birs, but in other respects resembling those already described.

The territory of ancient Chaldea, extending from Dewannieh and the Euphrates to the Boo je Heirat Canal, is thickly dotted with immense mounds, among which that