Our historian further relates, that Nitocris having tem porarily diverted the waters of the Euphrates by a course outside the city, embanked a part of the river, and made a descent into it from each of the gates in the return wall. This embankment was constructed of baked bricks in the same manner as the walls; a difli_Tent material, however, was used by this queen in the construction of a stone bridge, or perhaps we should more correctly say piers of a bridge, as the roadway was formed of horizontal timbers, laid, as seems probable, from pier to pier. The beams were taken up at night, thus forming a kind of draw-bridge. In the piers, hewn stones were employed, which were securely connected together with iron and lead. Another remarkable work of this reign, was the erection of a building over the principal gates, to be used as a place of sepulture.
Thus far lierodotus; later authors differ from him in several particulars, still however preserving the same general account. Diodorus considerably diminishes the size of the outer wall, both in length and height, but the difference in the latter is easily accounted fur, as he relates their condition as they appeared after the time of Darius llystaspes, who reduced the height to fifty cubits. Strabo also gives the circuit of the wall at three hundred and eighty-five stadia. Diodorus further makes mention of two palaces, one on each side of the river, and connected by means of a bridge above and a tunnel below ; he gives the circuit of the new palace as sixty stadia, that of the old thirty stadia ; the new palace was surrounded by circular walls, enriched with decorations of sculptured animals, painted in colours on the bricks, and afterwards burnt in. The connecting tunnel our author states to have been vaulted, being twelve feet in height. and fifteen broad. This palace also contained the hanging gardens said to have been built by Nebuchadnezzar for his wife the ,Median Amytis. The gardens, occupying a space of ground four hundred feet square, consisted of terraces built one above the other until they reached a height equal to that of the outer walls of the city ; the terraces being supported on piers and arches, as stated by Strabo, over which were laid large flat stones, sixteen feet long by four in breadth, and above those a layer of reeds mixed with bitumen, covered with two courses of bricks in cement. The extreme covering consisted of thick sheets of lead, on which was placed the mould for the garden. The spaces between the terraces were formed into magnificent apartments, and on the highest terrace was a pump, by means of which a ,supply of water was raised from the Euphrates to irrigate the gardens. The ascent to the top was by steps ten feet in width. Strabo gives us one additional particular respect ing the tower belonging to the temple of Heins, namely, the height, which he states to be one furlong; according to Wesseling's reading, however, this particular is given by Ilerodotus.
Such is the description afforded by the ancients; let us now turn to the investigations on this subject by modern travellers, and in doing so we shall take the liberty of laving before our readers the account given by Mr. Rich, who has
examined the ruins of this city with perhaps greater care than any other person. We must premise, that the site of the ancient city is a matter of dispute, hut is allowed to be situate somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1 lillah and Mohawill. This position has been determined upon on aecount, of the mounds and heaps of ruins which are found dispersed about this quarter, on or near the banks of the Euphrates.
"The ruins of the eastern quarter," says Mr. Rich, "commence about two miles above llillah, and consist of two large masses or mounds connected with and lying north and south of each other, and several smaller ones which cross the plain at different entervals. These ruins are termi nated on the north by the remains of a very extensive build ing called the from the south-east angle of which proceeds a narrow ridge or mound of earth wearing the appearance of having been a boundary wall. This ridge forms a kind of circular enclosure, and joins the south-east point of the most southerly of the two grand masses. The river-bank, on the south-west of the tomb of Amram, is skirted by a ruin extending nearly eight hunched yards; it is for three hundred yards forty feet perpendicular; a little above this is a piece of ground formerly the bed of a river ; here earthen vases with bones were found. From the east angle of the ruin on the river bank, commences another mound similar to that first mentioned, but broader and flatter ; this mound is the most southerly of all the ruins.
" On taking a view of the ruins from south to north, the first object that attracts attention is the low mound connected with the ruin on the south-west of the tomb of Amram : on it are two small walls close together, and only a few feet in height and breadth. This ruin, which is called Jumjuma, and formed part of a Mohammedan oratory, gives its name to a village a little to the left of it. To this succeeds the first grand mass of ruins, which is 1100 yards in length, and SOO in its greatest breadth; its figure nearly resembles that of a quadrant ; its height is irregular ; but the most elevated part may be about fifty or sixty feet above the level of the plain, and it has been dug into for the purpose of procuring bricks. Just below the highest part of it is a small dome in an oblong enclosure distinguished by the name of Amran Ibn Ali. On the north is a valley of 550 yards in length, the area of which is covered with tussoeks of rank grass, and crossed by a line of ruins of very little elevation. To this succeeds the second grand mass of ruins, the shape of which is nearly a square of 00 yards length and breadth, and its south-west angle is connected with the north-west angle of the mounds of Amran by a ridge of considerable height, and nearly 100 yards in breadth.