"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." [‎١‎٠‎٠] (٤٧٤/١٨٦)

100
MEMOIR ON THE RUINS
mixed up with chopped straw. At the Birs Nem-
roud I found some tire-burnt bricks, which appeared
to have had the same materials in their composition.
The best sun-dried bricks I ever saw, are those
which compose the ruin called Akerkouf.
There are three kinds of cement discoverable in
the ruins of Babylon ; bitumen, mortar, and clay.
I am inclined to think the former could never have
been of such very general use as is commonly ima
gined ; we now only find it in a few situations (not
always such as indicate the reason for which it was
used), except the small pieces of it which are found
on the surface of the mounds. Though the foun
tains at Heet are inexhaustible, the Babylonians had
nearer at hand a much better cement, the discovery
of which was a very obvious one ; and the richness
of the ruins in nitre is some proof that lime-cement
was the one most generally employed. The pre
paration necessary for the bitumen is a much more
expensive and troublesome one than that requisite for
lime, for the commoner sort of which a simple burn
ing with the brambles, which abound in the Desert,
is sufficient; while the bitumen, to deprive it of its
brittleness, and render it capable of being applied to
the brick, must be boiled with a certain proportion
of oil; and after all, the tenacity of the bitumen
bears no comparison with that of the mortar. The
bricks which Niebuhr mentions as being so easily
separated, were all laid in bitumen ; and I invariably
lound that when this was the case, as above the sub-