at lord, inclined
my heart to repair the building. I did not change its site, nor did I
destroy its foundation-platform. But, in a fortunate month, and upon an
auspicious day, I undertook the building of the raw-brick terrace and
the burnt-brick casing of the Temple. I strengthened its foundation, and
I placed a titular record on the part which I had rebuilt. I set my
hand to build it up, and to exalt its summit. As it had been in ancient
times, so I built up its structure. As it had been in former days, thus
I exalted its head.'"

Professor Rawlinson assigns B.C. 2300 as the date of the building of the
Temple. But as Colenso remarks, his reasoning is very loose. His date,
however, is _antecedent_ to the supposed time of the building of
Babel, and according to his own chronology the latter _may_ have been
a tradition of the former. Add to this that the ruins of _Birs Nimroud_
are extant, while there is no vestige of the ruins of Babel. According
to Kalisch's chronology, _Birs Nimroud_ was built long after the
supposed time of Moses; and if _he_ wrote the Pentateuch our position
cannot be maintained. But he did not write the Pentateuch or any portion
of it. The writer of the Jehovist portion of Genesis, which contains the
story of the Tower of Babel, certainly did not flourish before the
time of Solomon, about b.c. 1015--975. Here, then, is an interval of
a century. That is a short period for the growth of a legend. Yet, as
Colenso observes, "as the _tower_ was apparently an observatory, and
the fact of its being dedicated to the seven ancient planets shows
that astronomical observations had made considerable progress among the
Chaldeans at the time when it was built, the traditions connected with
it may have embodied stories of a much earlier date, to which the new
building gave fresh currency."

The Temple of Jupiter Belus with its tower was partially destroyed
by Xerxes b.c. 490; upon which, says Kalisch, "the fraudulent priests
appropriated to themselves the lands and enormous revenues attached to
it, and seem, from this reason, to have been averse to its restoration."
A part of the edifice still existed more than five centuries later, and
was mentioned by Pliny. But the other part was, in the time of Alexander
the Great, a vast heap of ruins. He determined to rebuild it, but
desisted from the enterprise, when he found that ten thousand workmen
could not remove the rubbish in two months. Benjamin of Tudela described