Page:Herodotus and the Empires of the East.djvu/36

30 investigators, in so far as Rawlinson, as well as Jones and Shelby, declare that they have found a trace of the great wall. But the mounds of ruins which formed the basis of Oppert's conjectures cannot justify his delineation. It must seem strange that no trace of the walls of Babylon remains to-day, after the work of Nebuchadrezar. In several places, in the report of his building operations, he specially emphasizes the fact that he built the foundation of bitumen and brick immediately over the subterranean water (miḫrat mê ). At another time he says he has laid the foundations "on the breast of the lower world" (ina irat kigallu ). It must be remembered that since the days of the Persian power the walls, in so far as they were not torn down, were left to decay, and that, as remarked above, the existing material was appropriated for other structures. We are not sure, in spite of repeated excavations, that the remains of the old fortifications are not extant. Smith complains that the work of excavation in Babylon has been conducted very carelessly.

The existing ruins furnish us no accurate conclusion concerning the circumference of the town or the extent of the fortification wall which we can use to verify the accounts of Herodotus. Further assistance is furnished by the cuneiform text. It is fortunate that the baked bricks of the time of Nebuchadrezar bear his royal stamp. In the midst of the heap of