KASR or Al-Kasar, a mound of ruins in the vicinity of Baghdad. This mound of ancient Babylon is supposed to belong to the hanging gardens which were on its western side. There are still to be seen beautiful tiers and buttresses. In one of the corners is a rough stone lion standing over the figure of a man. The mound is irregular in shape, about 700 yards in length and breadth, and in some places about 70 feet above the plain. The ruin, called by the Arabs Al-Kasr, is much smaller than the Majallibah, but is nearly similar in character. The tower of Nimrud is visible from the spot. Here is supposed to have been the site of Ctesiphon, and on the opposite shore are similar heaps where Seleucia stood. Tak-ul-Kesra, or the Arch of Cli sroes, possesses no remains of extraordinary to e or ornament, but, in the name it bears, speak of splendour and of power, now eclipsed by a sin le tomb standing close to it, to which thousa s flock in honour of the memory of a barber. A
mile to the north of the Kasr, or full five miles", distant from Huila, and 950 yards from the river bank, is the ruin, which was described by Pietro della Valle, who determined it to have been the tower of Belus, an opinion adopted by Rennet]. The natives call it Majallibah or Mujalibe, meaning overturned.—Jackson, Journey from India towards England ; Ouseley's Travels; Skinner's Overland Journey ; Mignon's Travels ; Ruins of Babylon ; Ptolemy.
KASRA-i-SHIRIN, a small village of twenty eight houses, with a caravansarai-shahi in good condition. It is situated on the side of a moun tain, at the foot of which flows the Dialla. General Ferrier hazards the opinion that the ruins of Kasra-i-Shirin might be those of the city of Oppidam, which is placed by ancient authors in the Zagros mountains, between Opis and Ecbatana, and was founded by a colony of Bceotians, who followed Xerxes into Persia.