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

38 EXPLORATIOKS IN BMLE LANDS
conveyed the necessary supply of water. To judge from
the materials and the style of the principal building the
whole settlement is of Babylonian origin. Accordingly, the
theory of Niebuhr, who believed the lofty ruin to be an
artificial elevation on which one of the early caliphs of Baghdad,
or even one of the Persian kings of El-Mada'in,
had erected a country house, to enjoy from such a height
a breeze of cool and fresh air during the sultry summer
months in the Babylonian plain, is improbable. It was
rather Buckingham's firm conviction that the building represents
the " remains of some isolated monument either of
a sepulchral or religious nature." From the fact that the
" present shapeless form having so large a base, and being
proportionatelv so small at the top, seemed nearer to that
of a much worn pyramid than any other," 1 and from his
observation that a much larger mass of the fallen
fragments
of the top would be visible around the base if it had been
a square tower, he inferred correctly that the often described
ruin was originally a step pyramid similar to that found at
Saqqara in Egypt. 2 Though the interior of the solid ruin
of 'Aqarquf is composed of unbaked bricks, " its exterior surface
seems to have been coated with furnace-burnt ones,
many of which, both whole and broken, are scattered about
the foot of the pile." The real character of Babylonian
stage-towers at that time having not yet been disclosed
by the excavations, it was only natural that Buckingham,
well acquainted with the pyramids of Egypt as he was, and
once having recognized the original form of the structure
at 'Aqarquf as a step-pyramid or stage-tower, should
have regarded the latter as an ancient royal tomb rather
than as the most conspicuous part of a Babylonian temple.
According to inscribed bricks later discovered all around
1
Comp. the four different views given by Ker Porter on p. 227 of his
richlv illustrated work quoted below, and the illustration facing p. 1 5 above.
2
See the illustration given below under Egypt.