the Babylonian kings,
Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar (625-561 B.C.), the temples of the
national god Marduk or Merodach and other Babylonian deities, a broad
straight road, Aiburschabu, running north and south from palaces to
temples, a stately portal spanning this road at the Istar Gate, many
private houses in the Merkes quarter, and an inner town-wall perhaps
of earlier date. Street and gate were built or rebuilt by
Nebuchadnezzar. He, as he declares in various inscriptions, 'paved the
causeway with limestone flags for the procession of the Great Lord
Marduk.' He made the Istar Gate 'with glazed brick and placed on its
threshold colossal bronze bulls and ferocious serpent dragons'. Along
the street thus built the statue of Marduk was borne in solemn march
on the Babylonian New Year's Day, when the king paid yearly worship to
the god of his country.[14]

[13] F.H. Weissbach, _Stadtbild von Babylon_ (_Der alte Orient_,
fasc. 5); R. Koldewey, _Tempel von Babylon und Borsippa_, plates
i, ii; S. Langdon, _Expositor_, 1909, pp. 82, 142; Hommel,
_Geogr. des alten Orients_, pp. 290, 331; E. Meyer, _Sitzungsber.
preuss. Akad_. 1912, p. 1102. I am indebted to Dr. Langdon for
references to some of the treatises cited here and below. I
cannot share the unfavourable view which is taken by Messrs. How
and Wells, the latest good editors of Herodotus, of the views of
these writers.

[14] Koldewey, _Pflastersteine von Aiburschabu_ (Leipzig, 1901).
Some of the streets of Babylon are much older than 600 B.C., but
this point needs to be worked out further.

[Illustration: FIG I. BABYLON]

Such are the remains of the city of Babylon, so far as they are known
at present. They do not fit ill with the words of Herodotus. We can
detect in them the semblance not indeed of one square but of two
unequal half-squares, divided by the river; we can trace at least one
great street parallel to the river and others which run at right
angles to it towards the river. If the brick defences along the
water-side have vanished, that may be due to their less substantial
character and to the many changes of the river itself. To the student
of Babylonian topography, the account of Herodotus is of very little
worth. But it is as good as most modern travellers could compile, if
they were let loose in a vast area of buildings, without plans,
without instruments, and without any notion that a scientific
descr