"Not more than 200 yards from the northern extremity of this mound is a ravine, hollowed out by those who dig fbr bricks, in length 100 yards, and 10 feet wide by 40 or 50 deep. On one side of it a few yards of wall remain standing, the face of which is very clean and perfect, and appears to have been the front of some building. Under the foundations, at the southern end, an opening is made, which discovers a subterranean passage, floored and walled with large bricks laid in bitumen, and covered over with pieces of sandstone a yard thick and several yards long; the weight above has been so great as to have given a considerable degree of obliquity to the side-walls of the passage; the opening is nearly seven feet in height, and its course is to the south. The superstructure over the passage is cemented with bitu men, other parts of the ravine with mortar, and the bricks have all writing upon them." The souterrain widens consid erably as you proceed fit•ther. This passage seems to fo•m part of the kasr, or palace, and may have been perhaps the tunnel alluded to by ancient authors. The principal portion of this ruin, to which alone the term kasr is applied at pre sent by the natives, is situate a little to the west of the ravine, and presents a remarkably fresh appearance, inso much so, that Mr. Inch was not willing, until after a close inspection, to allow its claims to being considered an original Babylonian remain. "It consists," says he, "of several walls and piers, which face the cardinal points, eight 11.•et in thickness; in some places ornamented with niches, and in others strengthened by pilasters and buttresses, built of fine burnt brick still perfectly clean and sharp, laid in lime cement, of such tenacity that it is almost impossible to extract a brick whole. The tops of these walls are broken, and may have, been much higher; on the outside they have in some places been cleared nearly to the flumdations; but the internal spaces formed by them are yet filled with rub bkh, in some parts almost to the summit. One part of the wall has been split into three parts, and overthrown as if by an earthquake; some detached walls of the same kind, stand ing at different distances, show what remains to have been only a: small part of the original fabric; indeed, it appears that the passage in the ravine, together with a wall which crosses its upper end, were connected with it.
"A mile to the north of the kasr, or palace, five miles from 11 illah, and 950 yards from the river-bank. is a ruin called the Jrajelibe, meaning the overturned ; its shape is oblong, and its height, as well as the measurements of its sides, irregular. The sides face the cardinal points; the northern is 200, the southern 219, the eastern 182, and the western ISO yards in length; and the elevation of the south-east, or highest angle, is 141 feet. The western face, which is the least elevated, is the most interesting, on account of the appearance of building it presents. Near the summit of it appears a low wall, with interruptions, built of unburnt bricks mixed up with chopped straw, or reeds, and cemented with elay-mortar of great thickness, having between every layer a layer of reeds; and on the north side are also some vestiges of a similar construction. The south-west angle is crowned by something like a turret, or lantern : the other angles are in a less perfect state, but may originally have been ornamented in a similar manner. The western face is lowest and easiest of ascent ; the northern the most difficult. are worn into furrows by the wea ther; and in some places, where several streams of rain water have united together, these furrows are of great depth, and penetrate a considerable way into the mound. The summit is covered with heaps of rubbish, in digging into some of which, layers of broken burnt brick, cemented with mortar, were discovered, and whole bricks with inscrip tions are sometimes found. The whole is covered with innumerable fragments of pottery, brick, bitumen, pebbles. vitrified brick, or seoria, and even shells, bits of glass and mother-of-pearl. In the northern thee of the Mujelibe, near the summit, is a niche, or recess, high enough for a man to stand upright in, at the back of which is a low aperture leading to a small cavity ; whence a passage branches off to the right, sloping upwards in a westerly direction till it loses itself in the rubbish." Receiving intimation that human remains had been discovered near this spot, our traveller commenced a strict investigation, and after exca vating to some depth through a hollow pier, formed of fine bricks laid in bitumen, and in size sixty feet square, he met with several antiques, amongst which were a number of earthen vessels, some thin and highly glazed. Prosecuting his labours still further, another passage was laid open ; this cavity was narrow, about ten feet high, composed of both burnt and unburnt bricks, the latter with a layer of reeds between every course, except the two lowest, where they were laid in bitumen. In this passage Mr. Rich discovered a wooden coffin containing human remains, which presented the appearance of being of great antiquity. To the north and west of this mass of ruins, and at about 70 yards dis tant from it, runs a low mound, which may have formed an enclosure round the whole.
The only ruin of any consequence to be found on the western side of the Euphrates is that which is termed by the Arabs the Birs Nentroud, and by the Jews Nebuchad nezzar's frison; it is situate about six miles to time south west of Hillah, and is perhaps the most remarkable of all the ruins. Mr. Rich gives us the following description :—
" The Birs Nemroud is a mound of an oblong form, the total circumference of which is 702 yards. At the eastern side it is cloven by a deep furrow, and is not more than fifty or sixty feet high; but at the western side it rises in a conical figure to the elevation of 19S feet, and on its summit is a solid pile of brick, thirty-seven feet high by twenty-eight in breadth, diminishing in thickness to the top, which is broken and irregular, and rent by a large fissure extending through a third of its height. It is perforated by small square. holes disposed in rhomboids. The fine burnt bricks of which it is built have inscriptions on them ; and so excellent is the cement, which appears to be lime-mortar, that it is nearly impossible to extract one whole. The other parts of the summit of this hill are occupied by immense fragments of brickwork of no determinate figure, tumbled together and converted into solid vitrified masses, the layers of brick being perfectly discernible. These ruins stand on a pro digious mound, the whole of which is itself a ruin, chan nelled by the weather, and strewed with fragments of black stone, sandstone, and marble. In the eastern part, layers of unburnt brick, but no reeds, are to be seen. in the north 'side may be seen traces of building exactly similar to the brick pile. At the foot of the mound a step may be traced scarcely elevated above the plain, exceeding in extent, by several feet each way, the true or measured base; and there is a quadrangular enclosure round the whole, as at the Mujelibe. but much more perfect, and of greater dimensions. At a trifling distance, and parallel with its eastern face. is ' a mound not inferior to that of the kasr in elevation, but much longer than broad ; on the top of it are two koubPs, or oratories: round the Birs are traces of ruins to a considerable extent." Having thus given a description of the ruins as they now exist, it remains to determine the identity between them, and the buildings mentioned by ancient authors. On this sub ject great differences of opinion exist; the chief' difficulty arising from the almost entire absence of any vestiges of building on the western side of the Euphrates: this it has been attempted to obviate in various ways. Major Rennell, the author of a "Geography of Herodotus," is of opinion that the river has left its original bed, and formed a new channel fin• itself, which, he says, is a common occurrence in alluvial tracts of land, such as that upon which Babylon was situate; he supposes the ancient course of the river to have been between the Kasr and Mujelibe. In favour of this supposition, he quotes the words of Mr. Rich, where he says that the valley on the north of the Amran 1bn Ali is covered with tussocks of rank grass;—this, Major Rennell conjec tures to have been the bed of the river. In opposition to this opinion, Mr. Rich states, that there are no sufficient grounds for supposing the river to have taken this course, but rather that the buildings seem entirely to preclude such idea ; besides, he adds. every occasion was made use of to prevent the alteration in the course of the Euphrates in this neighbourhood ; the possibility of such an occurrence was obviated by the artificial canals and cuts which were so numerous in this part of the country. Ile further accounts for the existence of the tussocks of rank grass, by the cir cumstance of the river occasionally dvelfkm ing its banks, and on its subsidence, leaving some portion of its waters in the hollows ; this appears, we must confess, in some degree to invalidate his former argument; it does seem, however, some hat premature to suggest any material alteration in the course of the Euphrates, if difficulties can be accounted fin. by any other method; if any alteration is allowed to have taken place, it seems more reasonable to suppose the original course to have been through the ravine to the west of the 'ruins, especially as a number of bones have been found at this spot. The difficulty respecting the position of time river, however, is principal ly owing to lajor Rennell's considerably contracting the dimensions of the city : he considers the statements of ancient authors respecting its magnitude as merely fabulous; but seemingly without any other reason than their improbability, or rather inaptitude, to our present notions of a city. It', however. present experience were to he universally applied, we should, with equal justice, deny the existence of many erections of which we have ocular demonstration, fiu• instance, of the Pyramids and Sphinxes of Egypt.. It is true that the circuit of Babylon. as given by ancient authors, is immense, but it is not entirely unaecounted for ; for Quintus Curtius tells us, that nearly one-hall of the city was occupied in gardens and other cultivated lands, and not, as modern cities, composed almost entirely of houses. Internal evidence also respecting the truth of his statement, is furnished by I lerodotus, when he relates that, at the cap ture of Babylon by Cyrus. the inhabitants of the interior parts were not aware of what was taking place until some time after the circumstances occurred. If we allow the account of the ancients to be correct in this respect—and indeed we see little reason to the contrary—our difficulty in determining the localities of the ancient city will be consider ably diminished ; as we shall then be able to discover at least some remains on both sides the Euphrates, though not so great a number on the western side as we may have been led to expect.