'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in reference to Major Rennell's remarks: with narrative of a journey to Persepolis: now first printed, with hitherto unpublished cuneiform inscriptions copied at Persepolis: by the late Claudius James Rich, Esq., formerly the Resident of the Hon.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.' [‎311] (454/474)

NO. IX.]
APPENDIX.
311
more than a mile from A1 Hymer, the whole of which in
tervening space is covered with broken bricks, pottery, glass,
and all the other usual relics of Babylonian ruins. When
we reached the great mound itself, which had long been a
conspicuous object above the horizorij I found it to be pyra
midal, with numerous dependent smaller mounds. Its
base was nearly circular, in circumference 276 yards, and
in height about 60. One-third of its elevation is composed
of unburnt brick, the rest of the pile of that which has
passed through the fire. A large and solid mass of the latter
surmounts the whole, standing clear from any of the loose rub
bish which so abundantly encumbers its base. The fire-baked
bricks on the outside, by some cause, have become extremely
soft; and I should ascribe that effect to their complete
exposure to the external air ; they then break with ease on
the slightest force ; but, on penetrating into the solid build-
ino\ I found them as hard as any others of Babylonia. In
broad square surface they exceeded those of the Birs and
the Kasr nearly three quarters of an inch; but the thick
ness was not more than in those of the Birs. The whole of
this mass, as it stands on its rounded ruin-encumbered
foundation presents four straight faces, but unequal and
mutilated, looking towards the cardinal points. That to
the S. measures 39 feet, the N. 37, the E. 48, and the . 51.
Through them all the usual air-channels traverse each
other. The courses of the bricks differ in this building
from any I had hitherto remarked, a layer of clay only
seeming to be their cement; though at the unequal dis
tances of four, five, six, or seven bricks, a bright white
substance appears in some places an inch thick, as if
spread between them. Whether it may originally have
been the common bed of reeds, transformed thus by
some peculiar operation of the air or of the earth that com-