"سرد لرحلة إلى موقع مدينة بابل في ١٨١١، طُبعت الآن لأول مرة: مذكرات على الأطلال؛ مع نقوش من الخرائط المدبئية للمؤلف: ملاحظات على طبوغرافية بابل القديمة،بقلم الرائد رينيل؛ في إشارة إلى المذكرات: مذكرات ثانية على الأطلال؛ في إشارة إلى ملاحظات الرائد رينيل: مع سرد لرحلة إلى برسبوليس: طُبعت الآن لأول مرة، مع كتابات مسمارية نسخت في برسبوليس ولم تُنشر من قبل: كتبها الراحل كلوديوس جيمس ريتش، المحترم، المقيم البريطاني السابق لشركة الهند الشرقية في بغداد. حررته أرملته." [‎٤‎٥] (٤٧٤/١٢٣)

OF BABYLON. ' 45
tend to throw light on the description, or be the
means of exciting others to inquiry and consideration.
I have added a few sketches, illustrative of the prin
cipal objects, for which I claim no other merit than
that of scrupulous fidelity, having been solicitous to
render them accurate representations, rather than
good drawings. For the sake of greater intelligibility
in my descriptions, I have added a general sketch
of the ground, for the measurements of which I am
indebted to a gentleman who accompanied me (Mr.
Lockett), who superintended that operation whilst
I was employed in drawing and exploring. I project
other excursions to the same spot to confirm and
prosecute my researches; and preparatory to them I
solicit the communications and queries of the learned,
for my guidance and information.
An inquiry concerning the foundation of Babylon,
and the position of its remains, does not enter into
my present plan ; the latter subject has been already
so ably treated by Major Rennell, in his Geography
of Herodotus (a work to which I have often been
under obligations, which I take this opportunity of
acknowledging), that I shall consider the site of
Babylon as established in the environs of Hillah, and
commence my description with an account of the
country about that place.
The whole country between Bagdad and Hillah is
a perfectly flat and (with the exception of a few spots
as you approach the latter place) uncultivated waste.
That it was at some former period in a far different