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

DURING 19TB CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 19
ofHilla. 1 He regarded the designation of " Ard Babel"
given to that region by the natives, and the apparent remains
of an ancient city found on both sides of the river, especially
the numerous inscribed bricks lying on the ground,
which are evidence of a very high state of civilization, as
solid proof for the correctness of the local tradition. He even
pointed out the large ruin
heaps, " three quarters of a German
mile to the north-northwest of Hilla and close by the
eastern bank of the river [El-Qasr]," as the probable site
of
Babylon's castle and the hanging gardens mentioned by
Strabo, while Birs (Nimrud), " an entire hill of fine bricks
with a tower on the top " he regarded as Herodotus' " Temple
of Belus," therefore as lying still
within the precinct of
ancient Babylon.
Our last and best informed witness from the close of the
eighteenth century, who deserves, therefore, our special attention,
is Abbe De Beauchamp. Well equipped with astronomical
and other useful knowledge, he resided at Baghdad
as the Pope's vicar-general of Babylonia for some time between
1780 and 1790. The ruins of Babylon, in which he
was deeply interested, being only sixteen to eighteen hours
distant from Baghdad, he paid two visits to the famous site,
publishing the results of his various observations in several
memoirs, 2 from which we extract the following noteworthy
facts :
" There is no difficulty about the position of Babylon."
Its ruins are situated in the district of Hilla, about
one league to the north of it (latitude 3
1° 34'), on the opposite
(left) side of the Euphrates, " exactly under the mound
the Arabs call Babel." There are no ruins of Babylon
proper on the western side of the river, as D'Anville in his
1 Comp. Reisebeschreibung, Copenhagen, 1778, vol. ii., pp. 287, seq. :
Dass Baby/on in der Gegend von Helie gelegen habe, damn ist gar kein Zweifel.
2
In Journal des Savants, Mai, 1785, and Dec, 1790. For extracts see
Rich's " Collected Memoirs," pp. 301, seq.