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

42 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
importance for the final solution of his problem. Half an
hour after quitting Bellino he reached the foot of the steep
mound of which he had been so eagerly in search. But he
could remain only a few minutes.
Clouds of dust and sand
filling his eyes, mouth, ears, and nostrils, and rendering it
difficult and painful to look around, drove him soon from
the summit, which he judged to be seventy to eighty feet
high. Yet this brief examination of the conical red mound
and its
surroundings had sufficed to enable him to furnish a
general description of the size and character of the ruins and
to state his conviction that this elevated pile,
though nearly
eight miles distant from the Euphrates, was the extreme eastern
boundary of ancient Babylon, and itself a portion of its
celebrated wall. In support of his extraordinary theory,
which rested entirely upon the
partly misunderstood statements
of Herodotus, he endeavored to show that the peculiar
white layers of ashes, occurring at certain intervals in the
principal ruin of baked bricks, corresponded precisely to " the
composition of heated bitumen mixed with the tops [rather
stems !] of reeds," so particularly mentioned by the Greek
historian as the characteristic cement used in the construction
of the ditch and walls of Babylon.
After their late arrival at Hilla, the two travellers presented
a letter of introduction received from Rich to a powerful
Arab residing in the same town. Through his assistance
they were enabled to pay a visit to the lofty ruins on
the western side of the Euphrates, which had been " identified
" by Niebuhr and Rich with the " Tower of Belus,"
so often described by the classical writers. With regard to
the name of this ruin Buckingham states correctly l that,
1
As I personally have been able to verify repeatedly in that neighborhood
in recent years. Comp., also, Abbe De Beauchamp, above, p. 20. The
same name, El-Birs, is the only one given by Mas'udi in the chapter where
he describes the course of the Euphrates. Similarly the Qamus gives Birs as
the name of a town or district between Hilla and Kufa still known.