"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." [‎٦‎٧] (٤٧٤/١٤٩)

OF BABYLON.
67
siderable girth) ; yet the branches at the top are still
perfectly verdant, and gently waving in the wind,
produce a melancholy rustling sound. It is an ever
green, something resembling the and
of a kind, I believe, not common in this part of the
country, though I am told there is a tree of the same
description at Bussora.
All the people of the country assert that it is ex
tremely dangerous to approach this mound after
night-fall, on account of the multitude of evil spirits
by which it is haunted.
It will not be necessary to describe the inferior
heaps, which cross the plain between the two principal
mounds, and the inner line (F), and whose form and
extent will be sufficiently apparent from the accom
panying sketch; but, previous to giving an account
of the last grand ruin, I shall say a few words more
on the embankment of the river, which is separated
from the mounds of Amran and the Kasr by a wind
ing valley or ravine, a hundred and fifty yards in
breadth, the bottom of which is white with nitre,
and apparently never had any buildings in it, except
a small circular heap in the centre of it near the
point (C). The whole embankment* on the river
side is abrupt, perpendicular, and shivered by the
action of the water; at the foot of the most elevated
and narrowest part of it (K), cemented into the burnt
brick wall of which it is composed, are a number of
urns filled with human bones, which had not under-
* See accompanying Plate.
F 2