'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in reference to Major Rennell's remarks: with narrative of a journey to Persepolis: now first printed, with hitherto unpublished cuneiform inscriptions copied at Persepolis: by the late Claudius James Rich, Esq., formerly the Resident of the Hon.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.' [‎160] (248/474)

160
SECOND MEMOIR ON THE
slishtest reason to believe it could have been as
large as Hillah. We have no records which give it
any high antiquity; nor is there any necessity for
placing it at the mouth of the canal. We have in
deed examples of the contrary in Nahrouan, Naher
Malcha, and many other places. We thus come at
some important conclusions. Whatever ruins the
town of Neel—if ever such a place existed—may
be believed to have left, we have no positive reason
for supposing them to occupy the spot: and a place
even much larger and more important than Hillah
could not leave remains in any degree resembling,
either in magnitude or composition, those we now
see on the eastern bank of the Euphrates. Were it
necessary, innumerable instances might be adduced
from the ruins of well-known places in this neigh
bourhood in support of this assertion; and to show
that the eastern ruins must be wholly the remains of
public buildings, the large cities of Ctesiphon and
Seleucia will suffice;—neither of them has left ves
tiges of more than their walls (if we except the
Tank Kesra), and indeed those of Seleucia have
almost totally disappeared.
I will go further, and state my opinion that, even
should it be imagined by any one that there was a
town on the north side of the canal and at the base
of the Mujelibe (the only spot where it could have
been situated), and that it was considerable enough
to have had a castle the size of that curious ruin,—
this supposition makes no difference whatever in