But the main glory of the palace was its pleasure-ground—­the “Hanging Gardens,” which the Greeks regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world.  This extraordinary construction, which owed its erection to the whim of a woman, was a square, each side of which measured 400 Greek feet.  It was supported upon several tiers of open arches, built one over the other, like the walls of a classic theatre, and sustaining at each stage, or story, a solid platform, from which the piers of the next tier of arches rose.  The building towered into the air to the height of at least seventy-five feet, and was covered at the top with a great mass of earth, in which there grew not merely flowers and shrubs, but tress also of the largest size.  Water was supplied from the Euphrates through pipes, and was raised (it is said) by a screw, working on the principal of Archimedes.  To prevent the moisture from penetrating into the brick-work and gradually destroying the building, there were interposed between the bricks and the mass of soil, first a layer of reeds mixed with bitumen, then a double layer of burnt brick cemented with gypsum, and thirdly a coating of sheet lead.  The ascent to the garden was by steps.  On the way up, among the arches which sustained the building, were stately apartments, which, must have been pleasant from their coolness.  There was also a chamber within the structure containing the machinery by which the water was raised.

Of the smaller palace, which was opposite to the larger one, on the other side the river, but few details have come down to us.  Like the larger palace, it was guarded by a triple enclosure, the entire circuit of which measured (it is said) thirty stades.  It contained a number of bronze statues, which the Greeks believed to represent the god Belus, and the sovereigns Ninus and Semiramis, together with their officers.  The walls were covered with battle scenes and hunting scenes, vividly represented by means of bricks painted and enamelled.

Such was the general character of the town and its chief edifices, if we may believe the descriptions of eye-witnesses.  The walls which enclosed and guarded the whole—­or which, perhaps one should rather say, guarded the district within which Babylon was placed—­have been already mentioned as remarkable for their great extent, but cannot be dismissed without a more special and minute description.  Like the “Hanging Gardens,” they were included among the “world’s seven wonders,” and, according to every account given of them, their magnitude and construction were remarkable.

It has been already noticed that, according to the lowest of the ancient estimates, the entire length of the walls was 360 stades, or more than forty-one miles.  With respect to the width we have two very different statements, one by Herodotus and the other by Clitarchus and Strabo.  Herodotus makes the width 50 royal cubits, or about 85 English feet, Strabo and Q. Curtius reduced the estimate to 32 feet.