'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in reference to Major Rennell's remarks: with narrative of a journey to Persepolis: now first printed, with hitherto unpublished cuneiform inscriptions copied at Persepolis: by the late Claudius James Rich, Esq., formerly the Resident of the Hon.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.' [‎162] (250/474)

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second memoir on the
believe to have been the wall of the palace, and
Major Rennell, "the rampart of new Babylon,"
should have been inserted, as it were, in the different
hollows and vacant spaces of the ruins, with no
reason in the world to choose so awkward and
inconvenient a situation; and any villages which
may have been placed within the inclosure (like the
one we now find there) are obviously of no account.
The only situation, as I have already remarked,
where a town could have been placed, is either at
Hillah or to the north of the Neel.
Before the foundation, or rather augmentation, of
Hillah by Seif ud Doulah, a.h . 495, there was
a place there, named Al Jamaein, or The two
Mosques.* The name Hillah, which was given it
after its having been enlarged and fortified, is de
rived from an Arabic root, signifying to rest, or take
up one's abode.
I therefore repeat my belief, formed from the
inspection of the ruins about Hillah, that they are
of one character, and must be received altogether
as a part of Babylon, or wholly rejected without
reserve. And I must here state what seems to me
to be the best evidence for their antiquity, inde
pendent of their appearance, dimensions, and cor
respondence with the descriptions of the ancients.—
The burnt bricks of which the ruins are principally
composed, and which have inscriptions on them in
^ Abulfeda.