The thrones and palaces of Babylon and Ninevah from sea to sea; a thousand miles on horseback .. . and from 20 to 100miles wide on the east of the Euphrates, and west of theriver its length was 350 miles, and its breadth was from25 to 30 miles. In the eastern section there were 18,000square miles, and in the section west of the Euphratesthere were 9000 square miles, making a total of 27,000square miles. Six hundred years befoi-e our era, and dur-ing the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom was in thefullness of its power, wealth, and glory. That greatestof all the Babylonian kings built or enl
The thrones and palaces of Babylon and Ninevah from sea to sea; a thousand miles on horseback .. . and from 20 to 100miles wide on the east of the Euphrates, and west of theriver its length was 350 miles, and its breadth was from25 to 30 miles. In the eastern section there were 18,000square miles, and in the section west of the Euphratesthere were 9000 square miles, making a total of 27,000square miles. Six hundred years befoi-e our era, and dur-ing the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom was in thefullness of its power, wealth, and glory. That greatestof all the Babylonian kings built or enlarged the cities of * Isaiali xiii., 19. t Isaiah xiv.,4. X Isaiah xlvii., 5. § Jeremiah li., 13. || Jeremiah li., 41. H Daniel iv., 30. BABYLON AND NINEVEH. 163 Sippara, Barsippa, Cutlia, Chilmad, and Teredon. AViththe resources of an empire subject to his command, heconstructed a canal 500 miles long, extending from Hitto the Bubian creek, on the Persian Gulf, through whichthe commerce of India was brouo-ht to his his ambition was to make Babylon the grandest cityin the PLAN OF ANCIENT BABYLON. And how magnificent must have been the goldencity, the beauty of the Chaldees excellency, whencomplete in all its vast proportions! Sixty miles in cir- 164 THRONES AND PALACES OF cuit, the great city was in the form of a square, eachof its four sides fifteen miles long, and surrounded witha trench, deep and wide, and filled with water. Fromthe margin of the moat rose the great wall, containing200,000,000 yards of solid masonry, or nearly twice thecubic contents of the great wall of China, composed ofthe earth thrown up from the trench, and faced with sun-dried brick, each stamped with the name of the ]iroudking. The great wall was eighty-seven feet thick, so wideas to allow four chariots to mov^e abreast thereon, and,from the bottom of the moat to the top of the parapet,three hundred and fifty feet high. Two hundred andfifty towers, each ten feet high, rose above
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbabylon, bookyear1876
