Mohawil, he notes that they have become
continuous, and finds himself in a region of mounds, some of which are
of enormous size.

These mounds begin about five miles above Hillah, and extend for a
distance of about three miles from north to south along the course of
the river, lying principally on its left or eastern bank. The ruins on
this side consist chiefly of three great masses of building. The most
northern, to which the Arabs of the present day apply the name of
BABIL--the true native appellation of the ancient citys--is a vast pile
of brick-work of an irregular quadrilateral shape, with precipitous
sides furrowed by ravines, and with a flat top. [PLATE X., Fig.,3.] Of
the four faces of the ruin the southern seems to be the most perfect.
It extends a distance of about 200 yards, or almost exactly a stade,
and runs nearly in a straight line from west to east. At its eastern
extremity it forms a right angle with the east face, which runs nearly
due north for about 180 yards, also almost in a straight line. The
western and northern faces are apparently much worn away. Here are
the chief ravines, and here is the greatest seeming deviation from the
original lines of the building. The greatest height of the Babil mound
is 130 or 140 feet. It is mainly composed of sun-dried brick, but shows
signs of having been faced with fire-burnt brick, carefully cemented
with an excellent white mortar. The bricks of this outer facing bear the
name and titles of Nebuchadnezzar. A very small portion of the original
structure has been laid bare enough however to show that the lines
of the building did not slope like those of a pyramid, but were
perpendicular, and that the side walls had, at intervals, the support of
buttresses.

This vast building, whatever it was, stood within a square enclosure,
two sides of which, the northern and eastern, are still very distinctly
marked. A long low line of rampart runs for 400 yards parallel to the
east face of the building, at a distance of 120 or 130 yards, and a
similar but somewhat longer line of mound runs parallel to the north
face at rather a greater distance from it. On the west a third line
could be traced in the early part of the present century; but it appears
to be now obliterated. Here and on the south are the remains of
an ancient canal, the construction of which may have caused the
disappearance of the southern, and of the lower part of the western
line. [PLATE XII., Fig. 1.]