'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in reference to Major Rennell's remarks: with narrative of a journey to Persepolis: now first printed, with hitherto unpublished cuneiform inscriptions copied at Persepolis: by the late Claudius James Rich, Esq., formerly the Resident of the Hon.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.' [‎84] (168/474)

84
MEMOIR ON THE RUINS
would alone have left traces sufficiently manifest at
the present day.
Similar in solidity and construction to the city
walls, was the artificial embankment of the river,
with its breast-work, the former of which Diodorus
informs us was one hundred stadia in length. The
traces of these are entirely obliterated ; for though
on a cursory view, the mound which now forms the
eastern bank of the river, (and which for perspicuity's
sake I have called the embankment,) would be likely
to deceive observers, yet the alteration in the course
of the river at that place, the form of the southern
part of the mound, and, above all, the sepulchral urns
found built up in it, close to the water's edge, are
sufficient proofs that it cannot be the remains of the
ancient embankment.
The most extraordinary building within the city
was the tower, pyramid, or sepulchre of Belus, the
base of which Strabo says was a square of a stadium
each side, and it was a stadium in height. It has
been generally considered that Herodotus has given
an extravagant account of its dimensions; he says
that the first platto/m, or largest and lowest of the
eight towers of which it was composed, was
to i^r/Kos teal to ev^os, which has been rendered
a stadium in height and breadthwhich, sup
posing the seven other towers to have borne some
proportion to it, may be clearly pronounced an ab-
suidity: but jawcos also signifies length, space, pro-