the other, like the walls of a classic theatre, and sustaining at each
stage, or story, a solid platform, from which the piers of the next tier
of arches rose. The building towered into the air to the height of at
least seventy-five feet, and was covered at the top with a great mass of
earth, in which there grew not merely flowers and shrubs, but tress
also of the largest size. Water was supplied from the Euphrates through
pipes, and was raised (it is said) by a screw, working on the principal
of Archimedes. To prevent the moisture from penetrating into the
brick-work and gradually destroying the building, there were interposed
between the bricks and the mass of soil, first a layer of reeds mixed
with bitumen, then a double layer of burnt brick cemented with gypsum,
and thirdly a coating of sheet lead. The ascent to the garden was by
steps. On the way up, among the arches which sustained the building,
were stately apartments, which, must have been pleasant from their
coolness. There was also a chamber within the structure containing the
machinery by which the water was raised.

Of the smaller palace, which was opposite to the larger one, on the
other side the river, but few details have come down to us. Like the
larger palace, it was guarded by a triple enclosure, the entire circuit
of which measured (it is said) thirty stades. It contained a number of
bronze statues, which the Greeks believed to represent the god Belus,
and the sovereigns Ninus and Semiramis, together with their officers.
The walls were covered with battle scenes and hunting scenes, vividly
represented by means of bricks painted and enamelled.

Such was the general character of the town and its chief edifices, if we
may believe the descriptions of eye-witnesses. The walls which enclosed
and guarded the whole--or which, perhaps one should rather say,
guarded the district within which Babylon was placed--have been already