When travellers are furnished with a pasha’s firman (letter of recommendation), they can procure one or more mounted soldiers (all the soldiers at the chans have horses) to accompany them through dangerous places, and at times of disturbances.  I had such a firman, and made use of it at night.

In the afternoon we approached the town of Hilla, which now occupies a part of the space where Babylon formerly stood.  Beautiful woods of date-trees indicated from afar the inhabited country, but intercepted our view of the town.

Four miles from Hilla we turned off the road to the right, and shortly found ourselves between enormous mounds of fallen walls and heaps of bricks.  The Arabs call these ruins Mujellibe.  The largest of these mounds of bricks and rubbish is 2,110 feet in circumference, and 141 feet in height.

Babylon, as is known, was one of the greatest cities of the world.  With respect to its founder there are various opinions.  Some say Ninus, others Belus, others Semiramis, etc.  It is said that, at the building of the city (about 2,000 years before the birth of Christ), two million of workmen, and all the architects and artificers of the then enormous Syrian empire, were employed.  The city walls are described as having been 150 feet high, and twenty feet thick.  The city was defended by 250 towers; it was closed by a hundred brazen gates, and its circumference was sixty miles.  It was separated into two parts by the Euphrates.  On each bank stood a beautiful palace, and the two were united by an artistic bridge, and even a tunnel was constructed by the Queen Semiramis.  But the greatest curiosities were the temples of Belus and the hanging gardens.  The tower of the temple was ornamented with three colossal figures, made of pure gold, and representing gods.  The hanging gardens (one of the seven wonders of the world) are ascribed to Nebuchadnezar, who is said to have built them at the wish of his wife Amytis.

Six hundred and thirty years before Christ, the Babylonian empire was at the highest point of its magnificence.  At this time it was conquered by the Chaldeans.  It was afterwards subject in succession to the Persians, Osmans, Tartars, and others, until the year A.D. 1637, since which time it has remained under the Osman government.

The temple of Belus or Baal was destroyed by Xerxes, and Alexander the Great would have restored it; but as it would have required 10,000 men for two months (others say two years) merely to remove the rubbish, he did not attempt it.

One of the palaces is described as having been the residence of the king, the other a castle.  Unfortunately they are so fallen to decay, that they afford no means of forming a satisfactory opinion even to antiquarians.  It is supposed, however, that the ruins called Mujellibe are the remains of the castle.  Another large heap of ruins is situated about a mile distant, called El Kasir.  According to some, the temple of Baal stood here, according to others the royal palace.  Massive fragments of walls and columns are still to be seen, and in a hollow a lion in dark grey granite, of such a size that at some distance I took it for an elephant.  It is very much damaged, and, to judge from what remains, does not appear to have been the work of a great artist.