Page:Herodotus and the Empires of the East.djvu/40

34 of Babylon did not exceed sixty to seventy feet. But we must distinguish the simple circuit wall (Nimitti-Bêl) from the higher inner wall (Imgur-Bêl).

If Herodotus had followed his voucher, it may be conjectured that the latter, being of Persian descent, was guilty of exaggeration, since only scanty remains of the walls were extant. The Persians, who had conquered Babylon under Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes, were inclined to represent the town as a strong fortification. But we must remember it was more than mere boasting which led Nebuchadrezar to characterize the walls he had built by the epithet "mountain high" (Šadaniš ).

The accounts of Herodotus, concerning the material of the walls and the gates, correspond in general to those of the inscriptions. That bitumen was used as mortar in the construction of the walls is shown in several places in the building inscriptions of Nebuchadrezar—e. g., "with bitumen and brick" (ina kupri u agguri ). Furthermore, that the gates were bronze is proved by the cuneiform documents, according to which they were made of cedar and overlaid with copper.

Herodotus relates that the "queen, Nitocris," dug a basin above Babylon, near to the stream, "water deep" (i. e.) down to subterranean water). The circuit of the basin amounted to four hundred and twenty stades. "And when this was dug she brought stones and surrounded it with a wall." (I., 185.) This basin must have lain on the east bank of the Euphrates, for