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

"
DURING 19 CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 15
mains of the very extended city of Babylon, and the imposing
brick structure of 'Aqarquf for the " Tower of
Babel " or " of Daniel." For 'Aqarquf, generally pronounced
'Agarguf, and situated about nine to ten miles to
the west of Baghdad, is the one gigantic ruin which every
traveller crossing the narrow tract of land from Falluja to
Baghdad must pass and wonder at. Moreover, the description
of that ruin, as given by Eldred and others after him,
contains several characteristic features from which it can be
identified without difficulty. We quote Eldred's own language
"
: Here also are yet standing the ruines of the olde
Tower of Babell, which being upon a plaine ground seemeth
a farre off very great, but the nearer you come to it, the
lesser and lesser it appeareth : sundry times I have gone
thither to see it, and found the remnants yet standing about
a quarter of a mile in compasse, and almost as high as the
stone work of Paules steeple in London, but it showeth
much bigger. The brickes remaining in this most ancient
monument be half a yard [in the sense of our " foot
thicke and three quarters of a yard long, being dried in the
Sunne only, and betweene every course of brickes there
lieth a course of mattes made of canes, which remaine
sounde and not perished, as though they had been layed
within one yeere." 1
Master Allen, 2 who travelled in the same region not
nized from Falluja, and only a few miles to the north of it. For all these
travellers had a vague idea that ancient Babylon was situated on the Euphrates,
and that its ruins covered a vast territory. Eldred's description is
especially explicit : "In this place which we crossed over stood the olde
mightie citie of Babylon, manv olde ruines whereof are easilie to be seene by
daylight, which I, John Eldred, have often behelde at my goode leisure,
having made three voyages between the New citie of Babylon [/. e., Baghdad]
and Aleppo."
1
Hakluyt, "The Principal Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the
English Nation," London, 1589, p. 232.
2
Comp. " Purchas his Pilgrimage," London, 1626, p. 50 (quoted in
Rich's "Collected Memoirs," pp. 321, seq., footnote *).
3