'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in reference to Major Rennell's remarks: with narrative of a journey to Persepolis: now first printed, with hitherto unpublished cuneiform inscriptions copied at Persepolis: by the late Claudius James Rich, Esq., formerly the Resident of the Hon.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.' [‎308] (451/474)

308
appendix.
[no. ix.
crowned by a long and low piece of thick wall, rather like
the battlements of a small fortress than a tower. The
rubbish below consisted of burnt brick, w^ith scarcely a frag
ment of pottery; and this circumstance, added to its steep
ascent on every side, where all that it varied from a per
pendicular, seemed to have been caused by some originally
slight slope in the building itself, and the fall of fragments
from above, with the comparatively perfect and solid ap
pearance of its summit, induced me at first sight to conclude
that it was the remains of a solid and extensive wall, and
formed no part of any open building."
The heat and the impatience of his companion prevented
Mr. Buckingham staying more than a few minutes at Al
Hheimar; but he adds, a I was enabled on the following
day at Hillah, in a quiet apartment of the khan at which
we lodged, to reduce to writing what was then fresh in my
recollection.
" The base of the mound of Al Hheimar, at this eastern
extremity of our excursion through the ruins of Babylon,
appeared to me to be from 300 to 400 feet in circumference;
its form was rather oval than circular; its greatest length
being apparently from N. to S., and its lesser from E.
to W., so that its breadth or thickness through, at the
bottom, might have been from eighty to one hundred feet.
Its height appeared to be equal to that of the lowest part
of the Mujellibe, or from seventy to eighty feet, and nearly
equal to the breadth of its own base- On ascending to its
summit, we found there a mass of solid wall about thirty
feet in length by twelve or fifteen feet in thickness ; yet evi
dently once of much greater dimensions each way, the work
being in its present state broken and incomplete on every
side. The height of the mass was also probably diminished
from its original standard ; but of this it was not so easy to
judge^ as, whatever number of layers of bricks might have