Part 23 (1/2)
The vast trade, that rendered Babylon the gathering-place of men from all parts of the knoorld, and supplied her with luxuries from the re the acy and those effeminate custoiven by Herodotus of the state of the population of the city when under the dos, is fully sufficient to explain the cause of her speedy decay and ultimate ruin The account of the Greek historian fully tallies with the denunciations of the Hebrew prophets against the sin and wickedness of Babylon Her inhabitants had gradually lost their warlike character When the Persians broke into their city they were revelling in debauchery and lust; and when the Macedonian conqueror appeared at their gates, they received with indifference the yoke of a new master
It is not difficult to account for the rapid decay of the country around Babylon As the inhabitants deserted the city, the canals were neglected
When once those great sources of fertility were choked up, the plains became a wilderness Upon the waters conveyed by their channels to the innermost parts of Mesopotaardens, and the palroves, but the very existence of the nues far removed from the river banks They soon turned to etation ceased, and the plains, parched by the burning heat of the sun, were ere long once again a vast arid waste
Such has been the history of Babylon Her career was equally short and splendid; and although she has thus perished from the face of the earth, her ruins are still classic, indeed sacred, ground The traveller visits, with no coreat and sole to tradition, the pri-place Here Nebuchadnezzar boasted of the glories of his city, and was punished for his pride To these deserted halls were brought the captives of Judaea In thelories around hiovernor ado upon the wall Between those cruates Those massive ruins cover the spot where Alexander died
Soon after rihdad The holy places had this year been visited by the cholera, and of the many who had crossed the Desert few had survived In the crowd that had asserief and joy The h of those who had again found their friends The wild Bedouins of Nejd, who had guided and protected the pilgri on their weary dromedaries
After a lapse of some years the annual hadj from the south of Turkey and Persia had been able to follow the direct road to Mecca across the desert of Nejd and the interior of Arabia Since, Ibn Reshi+d, a chief of the Gebel Shae and abilities acquired the whole of that district; and has rendered himself sufficiently powerful to hold in check the various tribes which surround it Pilgriain venture to take the shortest road to Mecca He undertook to furnish them with camels, and to answer for their safety from Hillah to the holy cities and back
The chief punctually fulfilled his engagement, and the caravan I have described was the first that had crossed the Desert for many years without accident or e of Abd-ur-Rahman, a relation of Ibn Reshi+d I frequently saw this Sheikh during his short residence at Hillah, and he urged me to return with hiayls offered to accoret that I felt unable, on various accounts, to undertake a journey into a country so little known, and so interesting, as central Arabia A better opportunity could scarcely have occurred for entering Nedjd
Sheikh Abd-ur-Rah in fertile valleys, where the Arabs had villages and cultivated lands The inhabitants are of the sareat tribe of Shammar as those ander over the plains of Mesopotaardens in the hills; and although, froers, yet that he could by law at any time return and claim them
Ibn Reshi+d was described to htened chief, who had restored security to the country, and who desired to encourage trade and the passage of caravans through his territories His mares and horses, collected from the tribes of central Arabia, were declared to excel all those of the Desert in beauty and in blood Hawking and hunting are his favorite ast the wild anie antelope, I could not learn exactly which, called Wothaiyah, said to have long spiral horns, and to be exceedingly fierce and dangerous
I was assured that in the Gebel Shae cities, attributed by the Arabs to the Jews Inscriptions in an unknown character are also said to exist on slabs of stone and on rocks They may be that class called Himyari, found in other parts of the Arabian peninsula
About two hours and a half, or eight miles to the north-east of Hillah, a mound, scarcely inferior in size to those of Babylon, rises in the plain
It is called El Hy to the Arabs, the red, from its color The ruin has assumed a pyramidal form, but it is evidently the re, like the Birs Nimroud, of a series of terraces or platforms It may be conjectured, therefore, that it was a sacred edifice built upon the saeneral plan as all the temples of Babylonia and assyria The basement or substructure appears to have been of sun-dried brick; the upper part, and probably the casing of the lower, of bricks burnt in the kiln Many of the latter are inscribed with the nah the ether, it is not united by a white cement like that of the Mujelibe The sa the bricks has been daubed, as far as I could ascertain, between each layer The ruin is traversed like the Birs by square holes to admit air
Around the centre structure are scattered smaller lass and bricks
Opposite to the Mujelibe (or Kasr), on the western bank of the Euphrates, is a village called Anana, and near it a quadrangle of earthen rae mass of brick masonry is still seen in the river bed when the streament of black stone with a rosette ornament upon it, very assyrian in character With the exception of these remains, and the Birs Nis on the Arabian side of the Euphrates
On the eastern bank low lass are found in almost every direction One rese either in their appearance or in their contents, as far as they have hitherto been ascertained, deserving of particular description They only prove how vast and thriving the population of this part of Mesopotamia must at one time have been, and how complete is the destruction that has fallen upon this devoted land
CHAPTER XXIV
RUINS IN SOUTHERN MESOPOTAMIA--DEPARTURE FROM HILLAH--SAND-HILLS--VILLAGES IN THE JEZIREH--SHEIKH KARBOUL--RUINS--FIRST VIEW OF NIFFER--THE MARSHES--ARAB BOATS--ARRIVE AT SOUK-EL-AFAIJ--SHEIKH AGAB--TOWN OF THE AFAIJ--DESCRIPTION OF THE RUINS OF NIFFER--EXCAVATIONS IN THE MOUNDS--DISCOVERY OF COFFINS--OF VARIOUS RELICS--MR LOFTUS'
DISCOVERIES AT WURKA--THE ARAB TRIBES--WILD BEASTS--LIONS--CUSTOMS OF THE AFAIJ--LEAVE THE MARSHES--RETURN TO BAGHDAD--A MIRAGE
The south of Mesopotamia abounds in extensive and important ruins, of which little is known The country around them is inhabited by Arabs of the tribes of Rubbiyah and Ahl Maidan, notorious for their lawlessness, and scarcely ent or human than the buffaloes which they tend
One or two travellers have passed these reh the Jezireh, or have received descriptions of them from natives of the country Mr Loftus was the first to explore the ist, to the mission for the settlement of the boundaries between Persia and Turkey, he went by land frohdad to Busrah to join its other members As he was accompanied by an escort of troops he was able to visit the principal ruins on the ithout risk
He found the tribes well-disposed towards Europeans, though very hostile to the Turks Taking advantage of this favorable feeling, and relying upon the protection of the Arab Sheikhs, Mr Loftus returned a second tier hly interesting collection of antiquities from Wurka, now in the British Museum
All these ruins are best reached fro near them are usually in friendly co, however, to the present disturbed state of the country, I was coab, the Sheikh of the Afaij
The Afaij dwell in the midst of extensive marshes formed by the Euphrates, about fifty miles below Hillah On the eastern border of these swareat ruins of Niffer, which I was first desirous of exa After soo by land, keeping as much as possible in the centre of Mesopotahbourhood of the Euphrates, as the Arabs were now congregated along the banks of the river Zaid, with an Agayl of his acquaintance, agreed to acco hired mules and laid in a proper stock of provisions, tools, and packing cases to hold any antiquities that an our journey on Wednesday, the 15th of January
The weather was bright and intensely cold The sky was cloudless, but a biting north wind swept across the plain It was the middle of the Babylonian winter, and a hard frost daily whitened the ground We left Hillah by the Baghdad gate The Bairakdar ith me, with the rest of my Mosul servants My huntsman, old Seyyid Jasim, wrapt up in his thick Arab cloak, bore his favorite hawk on his wrist He was followed, as usual, by the greyhounds The Jebours went partly on foot, riding by turns on the baggage horses Mr Hor to cohdad by severe illness al s in Mesopota towards the centre of the Mesopotamian Desert