"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." [‎٨‎٦] (٤٧٤/١٧٠)

36 MEMOIR ON THE RUINS
monly understood, and I think too much importance
has been attached to the words
ven," which are not in the original, whose words are
Dwi 'ityNTi « and its top by a meta
phor common to all ages and languages, with a
very elevated and conspicuous summit. This is cer
tainly a more rational interpretation than supposing
a people in their senses, even at that early period,
would undertake to scale heaven by means of a
building of their own construction. The intention
in raising this structure might have been displeasing
to the Almighty on many other accounts ; such for
instance as the paying of divine honours to other
beings, or the counteracting of the destined disper
sion of mankind. For, notwithstanding the testimony
of Josephus' Sibyl, we have no good reason for sup
posing that the work suffered any damage, and, al
lowing it to have been in any considerable degree of
forwardness, it could have undergone no material
change, at the period the building of Babel was re
commenced. It is therefore most probable, that its
appearance, and the tradition concerning it, gave
those who undertook the continuation of the labour
the idea of a monument in honour of Belus ; and the
same motives which made them persist in adhering
to the spot, on which such a miracle had been
wrought, would naturally enough induce them to se
lect its principal structure for that purpose. Be this
as it may, the ruins of a solid building of five hun
dred feet must, if any traces of the city remain, be