On the right bank of the stream the chief remains are of the same kind.  West of the river, a rampart, twenty feet high, runs for nearly a mile parallel with the general line of the Amran mound, at the distance of about 1000 yards from the old course of the stream.  At either extremity the line of the rampart turns at a right angle, running down towards the river, and being traceable towards the north for 400 yards and towards the south for fifty or sixty.  It is evident that there was once, before the stream flowed in its present channel, a rectangular enclosure, a mile long and 1000 yards broad, opposite to the Amran mound; and there are indications that within this enceinte was at least one important building, which was situated near the south-east angle of the enclosure, on the banks of the old course of the river.  The bricks found at this point bear the name of Neriglissar.

There are also, besides the ramparts and the great masses of ruin above described, a vast number of scattered and irregular heaps of hillocks on both sides of the river, chiefly, however, upon the eastern bank.  Of these one only seems to deserve distinct mention.  This is the mound called El Homeira, “the Red,” which lies due east of the Kasr, distant from it about 800 yards—­a mound said to be 300 yards long by 100 wide, and to attain an elevation of 60 or 70 feet.  It is composed of baked brick of a bright red color, and must have been a building of a very considerable height resting upon a somewhat confined base.  Its bricks are inscribed along their edges, not (as is the usual practice) on their lower face.

The only other ancient work of any importance of which some remains are still to be traced is a brick embankment on the left bank of the stream between the Kasr and the Babil mounds, extending for a distance of a thousand yards in a line which has a slight curve and a general direction of S.S.W.  The bricks of this embankment are of a bright red color, and of great hardness.  They are laid wholly in bitumen.  The legend which they bear shows that the quay was constructed by Nabonidus. [Plate XIII.]

[Illustration:  Plate XIII.]

Such then are the ruins of Babylon—­the whole that can now with certainty be assigned to the “beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency”—­the “great Babylon” of Nebuchadnezzar.  Within a space little more than three miles long and a mile and three quarters broad are contained all the undoubted remains of the greatest city of the old world.  These remains, however, do not serve in any way to define the ancient limits of the place.  They are surrounded on every side by nitrous soil, and by low heaps which it has not been thought worth while to excavate, but which the best judges assign to the same era as the great mounds, and believe to mark the sites of the lesser temples and the other public buildings of the ancient city.  Masses of this kind are most frequent to the north and east.