(5) Its Purpose. The purposes to which this splendid edifice was appropriated may have been partly gathered from the preceding statements. These purposes varied in some degree with the changes in opinions and manners Much successive ages brinight. The signal disappointment inflicted on its original founders shows that even in its origin there was connected with it something sig nally displeasing to God. It seems, indeed, al ways to have existed in derogation of the Divine glory. Consecrated at the first, as it probably was, to the immoderate ambition of the monothe iStic children of the Deluge, it passed to the Saftean religion and thus falling one degree from purity of worship, became a temple of the sun and the rest of the host of heaven, till, in the natural prog ress of corruption, it sank into gross idolatry; and, as the passage from I lerodotus shows, was polluted by the vices which generally accompanied the observances of heathen superstition. in one pur pose it undoubtedly proved of service to mankind. 1 he Babylonians were given to the study of as tronomy. This ennobling pursuit was one of the peculiar functions of the learned men, denomi nated by Herodotus, Chald:eans, the priests of Bolus; and the temple was crowned by an astro nomical observatory, from the elevation of which the starry heavens could he most advantageously studied over plains so open and wide, and in an atmosphere so clear and bright, as those of Baby lonia.
To Nimrod the first foundation of the tower is ascribed. Semiramis enlarged and beautified it, but it appears that the temple of Bel, in its most renowned state, was not completed till the time of Nebuchadnezzar, who, after the accomplishment of his many conquests, consecrated this superb edifice to the idolatrous object to whom he ascribed his victories. That the observatory on the tower was erected in remote times, there is good reason to believe. Prideaux mentions the circumstance that when Alexander made himself master of Bab ylon, Calisthenes, the philosopher, who attended Lim thither, found astronomical observations as cending upwards Two years.
(6) Appearance. The appearance of the tower is deeply impressive, rising suddenly as it does out of a wide desert plain, with its rent, frag mentary and fire-blasted pile, masses of vitrified matter lying around, and the whole hill itself on which it stands caked and hardened out of the materials with which the temple had been built. Hormuzd Rassam says: "The vitrified portion of the tower of Belus has ever been a great mystery to me, and although I have been trying for the last three years to find out, through scientific gen tlemen in this country, the cause of the vitrifica tion, I have as yet found no one who could explain the mystery satisfactorily. Every traveler who visited the place could not help noticing the al most supernatural sight, but not one of them could come to any tangible conclusion as to the cause. Benjamin, of Tudela, goes so far as to assert that the 'heavenly fire which struck the tower split it to its very foundation;' and my late friend Mr. Loftus gives the opinion of a 'talented compan ion,' who originated the idea, when they examined the Birs Nimroud in company, that in order to render their edifices more durable, the Babylo nians submitted them, when erected, to the heat of a furnace. The former authority does not tell us
whether his assertion was based upon his own con jecture, or that he quoted a tradition which existed then in the country when he visited the town about seven hundred years ago. As for the opinion of the latter, it cannot hold water, because it is against common sense that a huge tower like that of Birs Nimroud could be subjected to artificial heat after it was built. The tower must have been originally at least two hundred feet high; and to build a furnace to envelop it would be just like trying to cover a solid mass equal in size to the whole dome of St. Paul's Cathedral with one huge furnace, and subjecting it to artificial heat for the purpose of vitrifying it. Indeed, there is no visi ble sign of vitrification on any part of the remain ing edifice, but the huge vitrified bowlders are scattered about the tower, and look as if they do not belong to the place at all. Some of these must be between ten and fifteen feet square; aigd the vitrification is so complete throughout that, when I tried to have a large piece broken to bring to the British Museum, I failed to do so until obtained the services of a competent mason, who managed to break me two pieces, after having blunted half-a-dozen of his iron tools." (Jour. of Transactions of the l'ictoria Inst., vol, xvii, Apr. 16, 18S3, fiy5. 235, 236.) A very considerable space round the tower, forming a vast court or area, is covered with ruins, affording abundant vestiges of former buildings; exhibiting uneven heaps of various sizes, covered with masses of broken brick, tiles and vitrified fragments—all bespeaking some signal overthrow in former days. The to•erlike ruin on the summit is a solid mass 28 feet broad, constructed of the most beautiful brick masonry. It is rent from the top nearly halfway to the bottom. It is perforated in ranges of square openings. At its base lie sev eral immense unshapen masses of fine brick work some changed to a state of the hardest vitrifica tion, affording evidence of the action of fire, which seems to have been the of heaven.
The base of the tower, at present, measures 2,082 feet in circumference. Hardly half of its former altitude remains. From its summit, the view in the distance presents to the south an arid desert plain; to the west the same trackless waste; to wards the northeast marks of buried ruins are visible to a vast distance.
(7) Bricks. The bricks which compose the tower are mostly stamped with several lines of inscription, in the Cuneiform or Babylonian char acter. Some extend to four or even seven lines, but the dimensions of all are the same. The bricks of Babylon are of two kinds, sun-dried and fire-burnt. The former are larger and of a coarser make than the latter; their solidity is equal to that of the hardest stone. They are composed of clay mixed with chopped straw or broken reeds, in order to increase their compactness. This is the sort of brick which the children of Israel made while in Egyptian bondage. The unburnt bricks commonly form the interior or mass of a building. This is the case with the great tower, while it was faced with the more beautiful fabric made in the furnace or kiln.