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

168 EXPLO RATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
own theories concerning the topography of Babylon, Oppert
came to the conclusion that Babil represents the ruins of
the pyramid called by Strabo the " Sepulchre of Bel," which
according to his view was a building entirely distinct from
the " Temple of Bel " with its
stage-tower.
Considerable time was devoted to tracing the ancient
quay of the river and the different walls of the city.
Fully
convinced that the capital of Nebuchadrezzar was about
twenty-five times as large as the ancient city of Babylon 1
(previous to the fall of Nineveh), and that the latter was
reserved exclusively for the roval quarter under the kings
of the Neo-Babvlonian dvnasty, Oppert followed Buckingham's
example and included El-Birs and El-Ohemir in the
enormous territory of his " Greater Babylon." He examined
these two extreme quarters and the territory lying
between them personally, supplementing or correcting the
statements of his predecessors in certain details. While
himself occupied with the excavations at 'Omran ibn 'All,
he even ordered a few trenches to be cut
in Tell Ibrahim el-
Khalil, a large mound adjoining El-Birs, and with the latter
forming the principal ruins of an ancient city. The finds
were insignificant, with the exception of a small dated tablet
found in a tomb and bearing the name of the place, Barsip,
at the end. In the light of Sir Henry Rawlinson's fundamental
discoveries at the Birs made a few vears later, but
published several vears before Oppert's work appeared,
this document, though as a stray tablet of little importance
for the whole question in itself, could be claimed as the first
cuneiform witness in support of the proposed identification
of these ruins with ancient Borsippa.' 2 Having once set
1
According to Oppert, the great outer wall of Babylon enclosed a territory
as large as the whole department of the Seine, or fifteen times as large as the
city of Paris in 1859, or seven times the extent of Paris in i860. Comp.
Oppert, /. c. , vol. i., p. 234.
2
Comp. Oppert, /. c. , vol. L, p. 204.