"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." [‎١‎٠‎٣] (٤٧٤/١٨٩)

OF BABYLON.
103
whitewash or plaster. I have seen some mortar in
Babylon of a reddish appearance, as if clay had
been mixed with it; and there yet remains another
kind of cement to be spoken of, viz. pure clay or
mud, the use of which is exclusively confined to the
sun-dried brick; and it is indeed a very imperfect
cement, notwithstanding the great thickness in
which it is laid on. At the Mujelibe, layers of
reeds are found on the top of every layer of mud-ce
ment, between it and the layer of brick : the use of
the reeds (which are the common growth of the
marshes) is not very obvious, unless it be supposed
that they were intended to prevent the bricks sink
ing unequally and too speedily into the thick layer of
mud; they are in a surprisingly perfect state, and
handsful of them are easily drawn out. I never saw
any reeds employed where any other kind of cement
was used. Herodotus asserts that the tops of them
are intermixed with the bitumen, and I have cer
tainly observed on pieces of bitumen impressions
like short pieces of reed, though not a fragment of
the reeds themselves (if there ever were any) re
mains ; and from subsequent observations I am in
clined to think such appearances might proceed
from other causes. In the mud-cement of the walls
of Ctesiphon there are layers of reeds as at Babylon,
and I believe they are also to be found among the
ruins of Seleucia, the builders of which would natu
rally have copied the peculiarities of the Babylonian