and thirdly, that they were of a vast height--seventy or eighty feet at
least in the time of Alexander, after the wear and tear of centuries and
the violence of at least three conquerors.

The general character of the construction is open to but little doubt.
The wall was made of bricks, either baked in kilns, or (more probably)
dried in the sun, and laid in a cement of bitumen, with occasional
layers of reeds between the courses. Externally it was protected by a
wide and deep moat. On the summit were low towers, rising above the
wall to the height of some ten or fifteen feet, and probably serving as
guardrooms for the defenders. These towers are said to have been 250 in
number; they were least numerous on the western face of the city, where
the wall ran along the marshes. They were probably angular, not round;
and instead of extending through the whole thickness of the wall, they
were placed along its outer and inner edge, tower facing tower, with
a wide space between them--"enough," Herodotus says, "for a four-horse
chariot to turn in." The wall did not depend on them for its strength,
but on its own height and thickness, which were such as to render
scaling and mining equally hopeless.

Such was Babylon, according to the descriptions of the ancients--a
great city, built on a very regular plan, surrounded by populous suburbs
interspersed among fields and gardens, the whole being included within a
large square strongly fortified enceinte. When we turn from this picture
of the past to contemplate the present condition of the localities, we
are at first struck with astonishment at the small traces which remain
of so vast and wonderful a metropolis. "The broad walls of Babylon"
are "utterly broken" down, and her "high gates burned with fire."
"The golden city hath ceased." God has "swept it with the bosom of
destruction." "The glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'