"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." [‎٩‎٦] (٤٧٤/١٨٢)

96 MEMOIR ON THE RUINS
this principle we take the present fashion of build,
ing as some example of the mode heretofore practised
in Babylon, the houses that had more than one story
must have consisted of the ground-floor or
cour, occupied by stables, magazines, and serdaubs
or cellars, sunk a little below the ground, for the
comfort of the inhabitants during the heats; above
this a gallery with the lodging rooms opening into it,
and over all the flat terrace for the people to sleep on
during the summer.
From what remains of Babylon, and even from
the most favourable account handed down to us,
there is every reason to believe that the public edi
fices which adorned it were remarkable more for
vastness of dimensions than elegance of design, and
solidity of fabric rather than beauty of execution.
The tower of Belus appears merely to have been
astonishing from its size. It was inferior in some
respects to the pyramids, and did not surpass either
them or probably the great temple of Mexico in
external appearance; and the ornaments of which
Xerxes despoiled it, convey an idea of barbaric
richness, rather than taste : all the sculptures which
are found among the ruins, though some of them are
executed with the greatest apparent care, speak a
barbarous people. Indeed with a much greater
degree of refinement than the Babylonians seem to
have been in possession of, it would be difficult to
make any thing of such unpropitious materials as
brick and bitumen. Notwithstanding the assertion