"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." [‎١‎٧‎٠] (٤٧٤/٢٥٨)

SECOND MEMOIR ON THE
of dwelling on this point. Indeed, were there any
thing equivocal in the appearance of the mound
itself, the principles of physical geography utterly
forbid the supposition of there being an isolated
hill of natural formation in ground formed by the
depositions of a river; and therefore, if any traveller
fancied he saw a natural hill at Musseib, or any
other place in that direction, he was most unques
tionably mistaken.
The same reasons prove that there could never
have been bitumen springs in Babylon. (See Geog,
of Herod, p. 369.) Diodorus, indeed, does not say,
as Major Rennell supposes, that bitumen was found
in Babylon, but in Babylonia,—which is a very dif
ferent thing.
The Birs Nemroud is in all likelihood at present
pretty nearly in the state in which Alexander saw
it; if Ave give any credit to the report that ten
thousand men could only remove the rubbish, prepa
ratory to repairing it, in two months. If, indeed, it
required one half of that number to disencumber it,
the state of dilapidation must have been complete.
The immense masses of vitrified brick which are
seen on the top of the mount appear to have marked
its summit since the time of its destruction. The
rubbish about its base was probably in much greater
quantities, the weather having dissipated much of
it in the course of so many revolving ages; and,
possibly, portions of the exterior facing of fine brick
may have disappeared at different periods.
In the foregoing observations I have endeavoured to