Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

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DURING V." 1 ' CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 163
the unhospitable and malarious regions around Nuffar forever
We cannot close the brief description ot Layard's fruitless
e fforts in Babylonia without quoting a remark which, on the
authority of Fresnel, 1 he is said to have made to his English
friends after his return to Baghdad. " There will be
nothing to be hoped for from the site of Babylon except
with a parliamentary vote for J^ 25,000 =
( $125,000), and it
ever this sum should be voted, I would solicit the favor
of not being charged with its application."
THE FRENCH EXPEDITION 1 UNDER FRESNEL, OPPERT AND
THOMAS
The continued activity of the English explorers among
the ruins of Assyria and Babylonia, the encouraging news
of the results of Loftus' first
tentative work at Warka, and
the general conviction of European scholars that the kings
of Babylon must have left similar and even earlier monuments
than those excavated bv Botta and Layard in the
Assyrian mounds moved the French government to a decisive
step.
In August, 1851, Leon Faucher, then minister
of the interior, laid a plan for the organization of " a scientific
and artistic expedition to Mesopotamia and Media "
before the National Assembly, accompanied by the urgent
request for a credit of 70,000 francs (
= 514,000). The necessary
permission was soon granted. On October 1, the
members of the expedition left Paris, and Marseilles eight
days later. Fulgence Fresnel, formerly French consul at
Jidda and thoroughly acquainted with the language and
manners of the Arabs, was the director, ably assisted by
Jules Oppert as Assvriologist, a voung naturalized German
scholar of great talents and independence of judgment, and
Felix Thomas as architect.
1
In Journal Asiatique, Series v., vol. vi. (1856), p. 548.