air in the vicinity of this
lower shrine, on which were sacrificed different classes of victims,
gold being used occasionally as the material of the altar.

The general appearance of a Babylonian temple, or at any rate of its
chief feature, the tower or _ziggurat_, will be best gathered from a
more particular description of a single building of the kind; and the
building which it will be most convenient to take for that purpose is
that remarkable edifice which strikes moderns with more admiration than
any other now existing in the country, and which has also been more
completely and more carefully examined than any other Babylonian
ruins--the Birs-i-Nimrud, or ancient temple of Nebo at Borsippa. The
plan of this tower has been almost completely made out from data still
existing on the spot; and a restoration of the original building may be
given with a near approach to certainty. [PLATE XV., Fig. 1.]

[Illustration: PLATE XV.]

Upon a platform of crude brick, raised a few feet above the level of
the alluvial plain, was built the first or basement stage of the great
edifice, an exact square, 272 feet each way, and and probably twenty-six
feet in perpendicular height. On this was erected a second stage of
exactly the same height, but a square of only 230 feet; which however
was not placed exactly in the middle of the first, but further from its
northeastern than its south-western edge, twelve feet only from the one
and thirty feet from the other. The third stage, which was imposed in
the same way upon the second, was also twenty-six feet high, and was a
square of 188 feet. Thus far the plan had been uniform and without any
variety; but at this point an alteration took place. The height of the
fourth stage, instead of being twenty-six, was only fifteen feet. In
other respects however the old numbers were maintained; the fourth stage
was diminished equally with the others, and was consequently a square of
146 feet. It was emplaced upon the stage below it exactly as the former
stages had been. The remaining stages probably followed the same rule
of diminution--the fifth being a square of 104, the sixth one of 24, and
the seventh one of 20 feet. Each of these stages had a height of
fifteen feet. Upon the seventh or final stage was erected the shrine
or tabernacle, which was probably also fifteen feet high, and about
the same length and breadth. Thus the entire height of the building,
allowing three feet for the crude br