hill of Junjuma and the Kasr, and
considers Babil to be a palace of Nebuchadrezzar.

In early times it must have presented much the same appearance as
the sanctuaries of Central Chaldaea: a mound of crude brick formed the
substructure of the dwellings of the priests and the household of the
god, of the shops for the offerings and for provisions, of the treasury,
and of the apartments for purification or for sacrifice, while the whole
was surmounted by a ziggurat. On other neighbouring platforms rose the
royal palace and the temples of lesser divinities,* elevated above the
crowd of private habitations.

* As, for instance, the temple E-temenanki on the actual
hill of Amran-ibn-Ali, the temple of Shamash, and others,
which there will be occasion to mention later on in dealing
with the second Chaldaean empire.

[Illustration: 032.jpg THE KASK SEEN FROM THE SOUTH]

Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving by Thomas in Perrot-
Chipiez.

The houses of the people were closely built around these stately piles,
on either side of narrow lanes. A massive wall surrounded the whole,
shutting out the view on all sides; it even ran along the bank of the
Euphrates, for fear of a surprise from that quarter, and excluded the
inhabitants from the sight of their own river. On the right bank rose
a suburb, which was promptly fortified and enlarged, so as to become a
second Babylon, almost equalling the first in extent and population.

[Illustration: 033.jpg THE TELL OF BORSIPPA, THE PRESENT BIRS-NIMRUD]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after the plate published in
Ohesney.

Beyond this, on the outskirts, extended gardens and fields, finding at
length their limit at the territorial boundaries of two other towns,
Kutha and Borsippa, whose black outlines are visible to the east and
south-west respectively, standing isolated above the plain. Sippara on
the north, Nippur on the south, and the mysterious Agade, completed the
circle of sovereign states which so closely hemmed in the city of Bel.
We may surmise with all probability that the history of Babylon in early
times resembled in the main that of the Egyptian Thebes. It was a small
seigneury in the hands of petty princes ceaselessly at war with petty
neighbours: bloody struggles, with alternating successes and reverses,
were carried on for centuries with no decisive results, until the day
came when some more energetic or fortunate dynasty at length