"سرد لرحلة إلى موقع مدينة بابل في ١٨١١، طُبعت الآن لأول مرة: مذكرات على الأطلال؛ مع نقوش من الخرائط المدبئية للمؤلف: ملاحظات على طبوغرافية بابل القديمة،بقلم الرائد رينيل؛ في إشارة إلى المذكرات: مذكرات ثانية على الأطلال؛ في إشارة إلى ملاحظات الرائد رينيل: مع سرد لرحلة إلى برسبوليس: طُبعت الآن لأول مرة، مع كتابات مسمارية نسخت في برسبوليس ولم تُنشر من قبل: كتبها الراحل كلوديوس جيمس ريتش، المحترم، المقيم البريطاني السابق لشركة الهند الشرقية في بغداد. حررته أرملته." [‎٤‎٠] (٤٧٤/٦٧)

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INTRODUCTION.
Not many years after, Babylon was visited by the
well-known traveller, Olivier, who thus describes
it: " The place where Babylon once stood, at about
twenty leagues to the south of Bagdad, presents at
first sight no traces of a city; and it must be care
fully gone over, before some heaps and mounds are
observed; and in order to discover that, in every
direction the earth has evidently been dug into.
Here the Arabs have for more than twelve centuries
been occupied in digging and carrying away the
bricks, with which chiefly Coufa, Bagdad, Mesjid,
Ali, Mesjid Hussein, Hillah, and almost all the
towns in the neighbourhood have been built. But
that which, as much as these excavations, contri
buted to the disappearance of the very remains of
Babylon, was the nature of the materials with which
it was built. It was situated in a flat plain, the
soil of which was composed entirely of earth, with
out being mixed with any stones, and in a country
where wood was always scarce; the inhabitants were
therefore obliged in building to have recourse to the
earth which was deposited by the rivers ; out of this
they made bricks, which they baked in the sun, and
which they bound together with the reeds that grew
ready to their hand. For the same reason they
generally employed bitumen in their buildings in
stead of mortar. It is manifest that a building
that Hillah ought to be at 32° 32', and Babylon at 32° 34', which is
veiy near my statement. I may further add, that Babylon is on the
eastern, and Hillah on the western, bank of the Euphrates. ,,