"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." [‎١‎٠‎١] (٤٧٤/١٨٧)

OF BABYLON.
101
terranean passage in the mound of the Kasr, the
bricks could be picked out with a small pickaxe, or
even trowel, with the utmost facility; but where the
best mortar has been used, as at the Birs, no force or
art could detach the bricks without breaking them in
pieces.
There are two places in the pashalick of Bagdad
where bitumen is found: the first is near Kerkouk,
and too remote to come under present consideration;
the next is at Heet, the Is of Herodotus*, whence
the Babylonians drew their supplies. Heet is a town
situated on the Euphrates, about thirty leagues to the
west of Bagdad, inhabited by Arabs and Karaite
Jews. The principal bitumen-pit has two sources,
and is divided by a wall in the centre, on one side of
which the bitumen bubbles up, and on the other, oil
of naphtha ; for these two productions are always
found in the same situation. That kind of petro
leum, called by the Orientals Mumia, is also found
here, but of a quality greatly inferior to that brought
from Persia. Strabo, who calls the naphtha
bitumen, says its flame cannot be extinguished by
water, and relates a cruel experiment made by
Alexander, to prove the truth of this, the result of
which, however, is in direct contradiction of it. I
* " Eight days' journey from Babylon is a city named Is, near which
runs a small river of the same name, discharging itself into the
Euphrates: this river brings down with its waters clots of bitumen
(asphaltum) in large quantities. From this source was derived the
bitumen used in cementing the walls of Babylon."—Isaac Taylor's
Trans., of Herodotus, Book 1st, sec. 12, p. 85.