ts of
bitumen in large quantities. From this source was derived the bitumen
used in cementing the walls of Babylon.

Such are the fortifications of Babylon. The city is divided into two
portions by the river Euphrates, which runs through the midst of it.
This river rises in Armenia, and throughout its course is wide, deep,
and swift; it empties itself into the Red sea.[7] Each of the city
walls is extended to the river, where it makes an angle, and, with a
coating of burnt bricks, lines the sides of the river. The city is
filled with houses of three or four stories, forming streets in
straight lines, and running parallel with one another, the cross
streets opening upon the river through as many smaller brazen gates,
placed in the breastwork of the river walls. Within the principal wall
just mentioned is a second, not much inferior to the first in
strength, tho less in width.

In the center of each portion of the city is an enclosed space--the
one occupied by the royal palace, a building of vast extent and great
strength; in the other stands the temple of Jupiter Belus, with its
brazen gates, remaining in my time: it is a square structure; each
side measures two stadia. Within the enclosure is erected a solid
tower, measuring a stadium both in width and depth; upon this tower is
raised another, and then another, and another, making eight in all.
The ascent is by a path which is formed on the outside of the towers;
midway in the ascent is a resting-place, furnished with easy chairs,
in which those who ascend repose themselves. On the summit of the
topmost tower stands a large temple; and in this temple is a great
couch, handsomely fitted up; and near it stands a golden table: no
statue whatever is erected in the temple, nor does any man ever pass
the night there; but a woman only, chosen from the people by the god,
as the Chaldeans, who are the priests of the temple affirm. The same
persons say--tho I give no credit to the story--that the god himself
comes to the temple and reposes on the bed, in like manner as at
Thebes in Egypt, where also, in the temple of Jupiter, a woman passes
the night. A similar custom is observed at Pataris, in Lycia, where
there is at times an oracle, on which occasions the priestess is shut
up by night in the temple.

Within the precincts of the temple at Babylon there is a smaller
sacred edifice on the ground, containing an immense golden statue of
Jupiter in a sitting posture: around the