'Narrative of a journey to the site of Babylon in 1811, now first published: memoir on the ruins; with engravings from the original sketches by the author: remarks on the topography of ancient Babylon, by Major Rennell; in reference to the memoir: second memoir on the ruins; in reference to Major Rennell's remarks: with narrative of a journey to Persepolis: now first printed, with hitherto unpublished cuneiform inscriptions copied at Persepolis: by the late Claudius James Rich, Esq., formerly the Resident of the Hon. East India Company at Bagdad. Edited by his widow.' [‎81] (165/474)

OF BABYLON.
81
number is not regulated) layer of bricks, it is per
forated with small square holes, as the brick-work at
the Birs Nemroud, and about half way up on the
east side is an aperture like a window j the layers of
cement are very thin, which, considering it is mere
mudj is an extraordinary circumstance. The height
of the whole is one hundred and twenty-six feet;
diameter of the largest part, one hundred feet; cir
cumference of the foot of the brick-work above the
rubbish, three hundred feet: the remains of the
tower contain one hundred thousand cubic feet.
Vide Ives's Travels, p. 298.* To the east of it is a
dependent mound, resembling those at the Birs and
AI Hheimar.
I shall now inquire which of the public works,
that conspired with its size to render Babylon so
celebrated among the ancients, was likely to have
left the most considerable traces at the present day ;
and how far the vestiges, which it may be imagined
would have remained, correspond with what we now
find.
Of all the ancient writers who have described
Babylon, Herodotus and Diodorus are the most
minute. Much weight must certainly be placed on
the accounts of the former of these historians, who
was an eye-witness of what he relates, notwithstand
ing the exaggeration and credulity, which may in
some instances be laid to his charge. The accounts
of later writers are of comparatively small value.
* See Appendix, No. 10.
G