"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." [‎٨‎٥] (٤٧٤/١٦٩)

OF BABYLON.
85
lixity; in this signification it combines better with
supos } as length and breadth is a more usual phrase,
than height and breadth, and the passage then would
mean no more, than that the base was a square of a
stadium.
If a sentence can be interpreted in two different
ways, it is surely not fair to charge the author with
the worst; and it is possible that, on a critical ex
amination of the venerable father of history, much
of the blame arising from his reputed inaccuracies
would be divided between his transcribers and trans
lators.* The tower stood in a quadrangle of two
miles and a half, which contained the temple, in
which divine honours were paid to the tutelar deity
of Babylon, and probably also cells for the numerous
establishment of priests attached to it.
An additional interest attaches itself to the sepul
chre of Belus, from the probability of its identity
with the tower which the descendants of Noah, with
Belus at their head, constructed in the plain of
Shinaar, the completion of which was prevented in
so memorable a manner. I am strongly inclined to
differ from the sense in which Gen. xi. 4. is com-
* The only passage my memory immediately supplies me with, in
which the word pwos may also be understood in the way I propose, is
the 155th line of the 7th book of the Iliad. Nestor is relating his
victory over the giant Ereuthalion; after having stretched him on
the plain, he exclaims, Tov /ttwio-Tov zoCi jcup-riffrov xroivov evi
dently with the idea present to him of viewing the space of ground he
covered as he lay; for he immediately adds, Tiox^os yfy rt$ 'Uuro
ragfyos zvtfcc zut h&x. But, I doubt not, better authorities might be
easily produced.