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

16 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
many years afterwards, gives as his measurement of those
bricks twelve by eight by six inches. Eldred's statement,
however, is more correct. While visiting 'Aqarquf, I found
the average size of complete bricks from that ruin to be
eleven inches square by four inches and a quarter thick. 1
The layers of reed matting, a characteristic feature of the
massive ruin, are not so frequent as stated by Eldred.
They occur only after every fifth to seventh layer of bricks,
at an average interval of nearly three feet. What is now
left of this high, towering, and inaccessible structure, above
the accumulation of rubbish at its base, rises to a little over
a hundred feet. If there is still any doubt as to the correctness
of the theory set forth, a mere reference to the
positive statement of Tavernier, 2 who visited Baghdad in
1652, will suffice to dispel it.
Shirley's and Cartwright's references to Babylon, or rather
to the locality just discussed, may be well passed over, the
former delighting more in preaching than in teaching, the
latter largely reproducing the account of Eldred, with which
he was doubtless familiar. Of but little intrinsic value is
also what Boeventing, Taxeira, and
a number of other travellers
of the same general period have to relate.
1
Chesney, "The Expedition for the Survey of the Rivers Euphrates and
Tigris," vol. ii., p. 605, practically gives the same measures (iij inches
square by 4 deep).
2
I
quote from the German edition before me (Vierz.ig-Jah.rige Reise-Beschreibung,
translated by Menudier,Nuremberg, 1 68 part 1 , 1 , p. 9 1 :
) Ich muss
noch allhier beyfiigen, was ich wegen dessjenigen, das insgemein von dem Rest
des Thurris zu Babylon geglaubet wird, in acht nehmen konnen, wehher Name
(Babylon) auch ordentlich der Stadt Bagdad gegeben zvird, ungeachtet selbige
davon uber j Meilen ehtfernet liget. Man siehet also . . . einen grossen
von Erden aufgehauften Hiigel,
den man noch heut zu Tage Nemrod nennet.
Selbiger ist in mitten einer grossen Landschafft, und lasset sich feme schon zu
Gesichte fassen. Das gemeine Folk, wie ich bereits gedacht, glaubet, es seye
soldier der Uberrest des Babylonischen Thurns : Allein es hat einen besseren
Schein, was die Araber ausgeben, welche es Agarcouf nennen.
Comp., also,
C. Niebuhrs Reisebeschreibung, Copenhagen, 1778, vol. ii., p. 305.