BABYLONIA 1. Name. The name is derived from its chief city, Babylon, termed also Chalthea, from those who, at a later period, inhabited it. A province of Middle Asia, bordered on the north by Mesopo tamia, on the east by the Tigris, on the south by the Persian Gulf, and on the west by the Arabian Desert. On the north it begins at the point where the Euphrates and Tigris approach each other and extends to their common outlet in the Per sian Gulf, pretty nearly comprising the country now designated Irak Arabi. The two words, Babylonia and Chaldxa, were, however, some times used in another signification; Babylonia, as containing in an extended sense Assyria also and Mesopotamia, nearly all the countries which Assyria in its widest meaning embraced; while Chalthea indicated, in a narrower signification, the southwestern part of Babylonia, between the Euphrates and Babylon (Strabo xvi; Ptol.). In Hebrew, Babylonia bore the name of Shinar, or `the land of Shinar,' while 'Babylon' (Ps. cxxxvii:t) and 'the land of the Clialdans' (Jer. xxiv :5; Ezek. xii:i3) seem to signify the empire of Babylon.
Babylon, or the Assyrian 13abilum, does not mean confusion. The error arose through a pun made upon the name by the Semites. The Hebrew has a word, balal, which means `to confuse,' and they derived Babylon from this because the con fusion of tongues here took place.
2. Climate. The great valley has a climate which appears little fitted to produce men of energy and force, for the temperature over its entire surface is very high in the summer season. In the far south, along the Persian Gulf, and in the near-by regions the atmosphere is moist, and the heat is of the same character as that of Hin dustan or Ceylon. Records do not exist to show the range of the thermometer, but the passing traveler states the simple fact that the tempera ture is higher than at Bagdad. In Bagdad the average maximum daily temperature indoors dur ing June and July is set down as io7° Fahrenheit, and it often goes up to 12o° or 122°. At present this high temperature is also reached in the north as far up at least as Mosul. It is now also ren dered much more oppressive by hot winds, which arise suddenly and, filled with impalpable sand, drive about in eddying circles or sweep in vast clouds over a wide extent of country. This dust becomes at times so thick as to completely shut off near objects from the vision, as though by a fog. The gleaming particles of sand shine beneath the sweltering sun, the sand enters nostrils or mouth and seems to choke the very lungs. Death itself sometimes alone terminates the suffering experienced in these terrible visitations. It is, however, altogether probable that in the period of the ancient history neither the heat nor the sand was such a menace, for at that period the vast net work of canals helped to create moisture. (Rogers, His. of Bab. and Assyr., vol. 1, pp. 277, 278.) 3. Physical Features. The country in an cient times was very prolific, especially in corn and palms. Timber trees it did not produce. Many parts had springs of naphtha. As rain is infrequent, even in the winter months, the country owes its fruitfulness to the annual overflow of the Euphrates and the Tigris, whose waters are con veyed over the land by means of canals. Quintus
Curtius (i:5) declares that the country between the Euphrates and the Tigris was covered with so rich a soil that the cattle were driven from their pastures lest they should be destroyed by satiety and fatness.
The alluvial plains of Babylonia, Chaldxa and Susiana, including all the river, lake and newer marine deposits at the head of the Persiar Gulf, occupy an extent of about 32,40o square geo graphic miles.
4. Rivers. The rivers are the Euphrates and its tributaries, the Tigris (sec and its tributaries, the Kerah, the Karun and its tributaries, the Jcrahi and the Idiyan, constitut ing, altogether, a vast hydrugraphical basin of 189,:oo geographic square miles, containing, within itself, a central deposit of 32,400 miles of alluvium, almost entirely brought down by the waters of the various rivers, and which have been accumulating from periods long antecedent to all historical records. All these rivers sent the peculiarity of flowing, for a great part of their course, through supra-cretaceous forma tions of a very friable nature, easily disintegrated by the action of the elements, and still more so by that of 'tinning waters when swollen by floods and carrying down pebbles. Near Bushiyah. about ten miles beyond the southeast quarter of an cient Babylon, on a level plain, arc found a num ber of sand-hills, which are constantly shifting their place and number, and yet always occupy the same general locality. They appear to owe their existence to the presence of springs, which moisten the sand and cause its accumulation, at the same time allowing the prevalent winds to alter the form and number of the hills, while their bases have a fixed point of attraction. They are objects of superstition to the Arabs. who often look upon them as the sepulchral pall of brethren who have fallen in battle. The efflo rescences of nitrate of potassium and of chloride or hydro-chlorate of sodium are common on these plains; the one is most probably derived from the decomposition of vegetable matters, and con sequently characteristic of alluvium of river or marshy origin; the other is indicative of deposi tions from seas or bays. The modern accumu lations of soil in Babylonia from annual inunda tions is still very great. Several canals, such as the Isa, the Nahr Zimberani-Yah, the NI uhawil, etc., convey water at certain seasons of the year from one river and part of the country to an other. In general, the alluvium that is brought down by canals and rivulets and deposited at their mouths is a fine clay. The great extent of the plain of Babylonia is everywhere altered by arti ficial works; mounds rise upon the otherwise uni form level, walls and mud ramparts and dikes intersect each other, elevated masses and friable soil of pottery are succeeded by low plains inun dated during great part of the year, and the antique beds of canals are visible in every direc tion.