embodies the concept of something vast and superhuman, well befitting
the city of blood and tears, cursed by the Hebrew prophets. Babylon was,
however, at the outset, but a poor town, situated on both banks of the
Euphrates, in a low-lying, flat district, intersected by canals and
liable at times to become marshy. The river at this point runs almost
directly north and south, between two banks of black mud, the base of
which it is perpetually undermining. As long as the city existed, the
vertical thrust of the public buildings and houses kept the river within
bounds, and even since it was finally abandoned, the masses of _debris_
have almost everywhere had the effect of resisting its encroachment;
towards the north, however, the line of its ancient quays has given
way and sunk beneath the waters, while the stream, turning its course
westwards, has transferred to the eastern bank the gardens and mounds
originally on the opposite side. E-sagilla, the temple of the lofty
summit, the sanctuary of Merodach, probably occupied the vacant space in
the depression between the Babil and the hill of the Kasr.*

* The temple of Merodach, called by the Greeks the temple of
Belos, has been placed on the site called Babîl by the two
Rawlinsons; and by Oppert; Hormuzd Rassam and Fr. Delitzsch
locate it between the hill of Junjuma and the Kasr, and
considers Babîl to be a palace of Nebuchadrezzar.

In early times it must have presented much the same appearance as
the sanctuaries of Central Chaldæa: a mound of crude brick formed the
substructure of the dwellings of the priests and the household of the
god, of the shops for the offerings and for provisions, of the treasury,
and of the apartments for purification or for sacrifice, while the whole
was surmounted by a ziggurât. On other neighbouring platforms rose the
royal palace and the temples of lesser divinities,* elevated above the