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

DURING
19TB. CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 13
two, and as late as the close of the tenth century, Ibn
1
Hauqal refers to Babel as " a small village."
The more we advance in the first half of the second millennium,
the scantier grows our information. Benjamin of
Tudela has but little to say. His interest centred in the
relics of the numerous Jewish colonies of the countries
traversed and in their history and tradition. Briefly he
mentions the ruins of the palace of Nebuchadrezzar, " to
men inaccessible on account of the various and malignant
kinds of serpents and scorpions living there." 2
With more
detail he describes the Tower of Babel (" built by the dispersed
generation, of bricks called al-ajur " 3 ),
which apparently
he identified with the lofty ruins of Birs (Nimrud).
Other travellers, like Marco Polo, visited the same regions
without even referring to the large artificial mounds which
they must frequently have noticed on their journeys.
Travelling to the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris, in
those early days, was more for adventure or commercial
and religious purposes than for the scientific exploration of
the remains of a bygone race, about which even the most
1
A brief summary of the different ancient writers who refer to the gradual
disappearance of Babylon, and of the more prominent European travellers who
visited or are reported to have visited the ruins of Babylon ( with extracts from
their accounts in an appendix), is found in the introduction to the " Collection
of Rich's Memoirs," written by Mrs. Rich. It rests upon the well-known
dissertation on Babylon by De Ste. Croix, published in the Memoires de /' Academie
des Inscriptions et des Belles-Lettres, 1789. Of more recent writers
who have treated the same subject, I mention only Kaulen (^Assyrien und
Babylonien, 5th ed., 1 099 ) and Rogers (" History of Babylonia and Assyria,"
vol. i., 1900). Much information on the early writers is also scattered through
Ritter's Die Erdkunde von Asicn, especially vol. xi. of the whole series.
2
Itinerarium Beniamini Tudelensis, p. 70, seq.
3
The Latin translation has Lagzar (1T3S7). Al-ajur (comp. lajur in the
Maghreb dialects) is used also bv the present inhabitants of Babylonia as
another designation for " baked brick " (tabuq). The word is identical
with the Babylonian agurru, as was recognized by Rawlinson, " lournai of
the Royal Asiatic Society," vol. xvii., p. 9.