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

14 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
learned knew but little. In the following sketch I quote,
in historical order, only those travellers who have actually
furnished some kind of useful information concerning Babylon
or other Babylonian sites.
From the latter part of the sixteenth century we have
three testimonials, that of Rauwolff, the adventurous physician
of Augsburg (travelling 1573-76), that of the Venetian
!
jeweller, Balbi (1 579-80 ),
and that of the English merchant
Eldred (1583), a contemporary of Queen Elizabeth, who
descended the Euphrates in a boat, landed at Falluja (or
Feluja, according to the popular Arabic pronunciation), and
proceeded across 'Iraq to Baghdad.
In vague terms they all
speak of the ruins of " the mighty city of Babylon," the
" Tower of Babel," and the " Tower of Daniel," which they
beheld in the neighborhood of Falluja or on their way to
Baghdad or " New Babylon." Their words have been
generally accepted without criticism. 2 It is, however, entirely
out of question that a traveller who disembarked at
Falluja, directing his course due east, and arriving at Baghdad
after one and a half days' journey, could possibly have
passed or even have seen the ruins of Babylon. From a
comparison of the accounts given by Rauwolfr, Eldred,
and others with what I personally observed in 1889, when
for the first time I travelled precisely the same road, there
can be no doubt that they mistook the various ruin heaps
and the many large and small portions of high embankments
of ancient canals everywhere visible 3
for scattered re-
1
Not having been able to examine his statement in the author's own book,
I profited bv the brief resume of his travel given by Mrs. Rich in her edition
of her husband's " Collected Memoirs," p. 55, footnote *.
-
Rogers, in his " History of Babylonia and Assyria," vol. i., pp. 89, seqq. ,
asserts that Eldred confused Baghdad and Babylon. But this is incorrect,
for Eldred says plainly enough :
"
The citie of New Babylon [Baghdad]
jovneth upon the aforesaid desert where the Olde citie was," ;. e., the desert
between Falluja and Baghdad which our author crossed.
3
Possibly they included even the large ruins of Anbar, plainly to be recog-