and 30 feet broad. At either extremity of the bridge was a royal palace, that in the eastern city being
the more magnificent of the two. The two palaces were joined not only by the bridge, but by a
tunnel under the river. The houses, which were frequently three or four stories high, were laid out
in straight streets crossing each other at right angles. II. Present state of the ruins.—A portion of
the ruins is occupied by the modern town of Hillah. About five miles above Hillah, on the opposite
or left bank of the Euphrates occurs a series of artificial mounds of enormous size. They consist
chiefly of three great masses of building,—the high pile of unbaked brickwork which is known to
the Arabs as Babel, 600 feet square and 140 feet high; the building denominated the Kasr or palace,
nearly 2000 feet square and 70 feet high, and a lofty mound upon which stands the modern tomb
of Amram-ibn-’Alb. Scattered over the country on both sides of the Euphrates are a number of
remarkable mounds, usually standing single, which are plainly of the same date with the great mass
of ruins upon the river bank. Of these by far the most striking is the vast ruin called the Birs-Nimrud,
which many regard as the tower of Babel, situated about six miles to the southwest of Hillah.
[BABEL, Tower OF] III. Identification of sites.—The great mound of Babel is probably the ancient
temple of Beaus. The mound of the Kasr marks the site of the great palace of Nebuchadnezzar. The
mound of Amram is thought to represent the “hanging gardens” of Nebuchadnezzar; but most
probably it represents the ancient palace, coeval with Babylon itself, of which Nebuchadnezzar
speaks in his inscriptions as adjoining his own more magnificent residence. IV. History of
Babylon.—Scripture represents the “beginning of the kingdom” as belonging to the time of Nimrod.
(Genesis 10:6-10) The early annals of Babylon are filled by Berosus, the native historian, with
three dynasties: one of 49 Chaldean kings, who reigned 458 years; another of 9 Arab kings, who
reigned 245 years; and a third of 49 Assyrian monarchs, who held dominion for 526 years. The
line of Babylonian kings becomes exactly known to us from B.C. 747. The “Canon of Ptolemy”
gives us the succession of Babylonian monarchs from B.C. 747 to B.C. 331, when the last Persian
king was dethroned by Alexander. On the fall of Nineveh, B.C. 625, Babylon became not only an
independent kingdom, but an empire. The city was taken by surprise B.C. 539, as Jeremiah had
prophesied, (Jeremiah 51:31) by Cyrus, under Darius, Dan. 5, as intimated 170 years earlier by
Isaiah, (Isaiah 21:1-9) and, as Jeremiah had also foreshown, (Jeremiah 51:39) during a festival.
With the conquest of Cyrus commenced the decay of Babylon, which has since been a quarry from
which all the tribes in the vicinity have derived the bricks with which they have built their cities.
The “great city” has thus emphatically “become heaps.” (Jeremiah 51:37) Ba’bel, Tower of. The
“tower of Babel” is only mentioned once in Scripture, (Genesis 11:4,5) and then as incomplete. It
was built of bricks, and the “slime” used for mortar was probably bitumen. Such authorities as we
possess represent the building as destroyed soon after its erection. When the Jews, however, were
carried captive into Babylonia, they thought they recognized it in the famous temple of Beaus, the
modern Birs Nimrod. But the Birs-Nimrrud though it cannot be the tower of Babel itself; may well
be taken to show the probable shape and character of the edifice. This building appears to have
been a sort of oblique pyramid built in seven receding stages, each successive one being nearer to
the southwestern end which constituted the back of the building. The first, second and third stories
were each 26 feet high the remaining four being 15 feet high. On the seventh stage there was
probably placed the ark or tabernacle, which seems to have been again 15 feet high, and must have
nearly, if not entirely, covered the top of the seventh story The entire original height, allowing three
feet for the platform, would thus have been 156 feet, or, without the plat-form, 163 feet.
Babylon
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