'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎118] (171/905)

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limits of babylonia.
[chap. vi.
of ruins, partaking of the same characters as those which
appertain to the preceding cities. That on the right bank
(the presumed Kerkisyah) is crowned by the modern town
Abu Serai, (father of palaces;) whilst that on the opposite or
left bank may, from its name, Kalneh or Chalanne, and the
more modern Charchemish, be the fourth city of Nimrud. 1
Limits of Babylonia.
The remains just mentioned indicate that the ancient king
dom of Babylonia comprehended a narrow tract along the
river Euphrates, extending from the neighbourhood of Erech,
or from about the modern town of Sheikh el Shuyukh, to
Babel; a distance of about 154 miles in a direction westward
of north, and continuing from thence 287 miles further, in
the same direction, to Kalneh, on the Khabur. The king
dom extended eastward till it joined Assyria, including Akad,
and two other cities no less remarkable. One of them bears
the name of El Kush, 8 and the other is the supposed site
of the antediluvian Sippara, 3 which is within the Median
wall, near the southern extremity.
The greater part of what was called Mesopotamia in latter
times constituted, therefore, the territory of ancient Babel,
the Aram-naharaim, or Syria between the rivers, of the
scriptures. 4 The same tract also bore the name of Padan
Aram, 5 or Champagne Syria; both of which designations
agree with the description given of the country by Strabo. 6
The ancient inhabitants of this part of Asia were called Syrians,
as some suppose, because it formed part of the government of
Syria Proper; but it is more probable that the appellation
was derived from the Assyrians, who, by placing themselves
in the plains near Nineveh after the dispersion, were the
1 Benjamin of Tudela writes Chalne, or Dakia, at the beginning of Senaar,
or Mesopotamia.—See Benoit, p. 29. 4to. Paris, 1513.
8 Extensive ruins, about 11 miles E.S.E. of Felujah.
3 Siferah of the Arabs.—Lieut. Lynch.
4 Gen. xxiv. 10; Deut. xxiii. 4.
5 Gen. xxviii. 2. 6 Lib. XV., p. 746.