The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1885-04-27
ANCIENT BABYLON.
The Garden of the Ancient World--A
Splendid City,

s
The Garden of the Ancient world-A
Splendid City.
In the current number Of the British
and Foreign Evangelical Review there
Is q fine description of ancient Babylon,
= translated from the German of L. De-
litzsch, the eminent Assyriologist, who
invites his readers to accompany him in
"a walk through that city as 1t was Il. G.
IS, oreight years before Nebuchadnez-
zar's death. Before entering the city
tney view the surrounding country:
THO Babyl0nia OF the pres
emit day resembles desert,
out OF which arise mounds and
ruins, solitary and grace; nearly all
the canals are choked with sand; the
shepherds wandering alone, with their
almost tue only human jewellers over
the whole plateau. How different was
q 1t in olden timesi Between b. G. 1900
and 500 Babylonia was the garden OF
the ancient world. The land sur
rounded like and island by two Of the
y finest streams in the world, the Euphra-
tes and Tigris-the Rivers of Paradise
is truly the grit OF both. They flowed
with swift current from the Armenian
the Persian Gulf. In the course OF
centuries lErge masses OF loan were
rolleddown and heaped at Meteorological
mouths, and this is what is now
called Babylonia. II was on this
soaked, fat and fertile soil that the old.
est civilization, not of Asia merely, but
OF the world, developed itself.h Tn,
melting OF the Armenian SHOWS caused
inundati0ns, which had to DO checked
by damming the rivers witch dikes anC
walls. Canals served for navigation
andialso led off the suporBuous wateri
To paris unatlt cted by tho overt Nv, anC
developed to such degree their fertll
Ivy That wheat and barley often gave the
iaborer 200 or 800 fold. Near Bagdad the
Two rivers are so near that only siS
hours are required to pass from one &c
the other. On this tongue OF
land, which was once q
fourth narrower, for the EuphrateE
has since removed its bod further west
ward, the great canal system com.
meneed; and by means OF still smaller
arteries The liie-giYing waters we're dis
tllbuted to nearly every tres. The dis
trect between Bagdad and Hilla(a three
days ride was formerly strewed with
heaps Of Towns aud villages TO ID,
south, In the very heart of the land, lay
babvlon, "the gate OF God" Its COM
ntIclal importance IL described, its for
uhcations, the Euphrates (half mil,
wide), swarming with ships of every
size; the largest Euphrates bridge, bull
by Nebuchsdnezzar; the different
quarters and great buildings
the royal bank, where i'm
portant business, public and private
was transacted. "The conditions and
bargains are first, perhaps, put down on
pepyrus rolls,then carefully written out
on clay tablets In cuneiform writing, q
which each party affixes his seal, or in
default of II his finger-nail, whereupon
the tablet is baked.n In running back
over the history, two or three Important
periods are noticed, but tho mistake il
made OF saying that 1t was only eight
years since Samassumukin's rebellion
against the AssyriaD rule. Eighty
Years must be meant. Many
mar not know that ~ years
before this, when Merodach
Baiadan had rebelled, Sennacherib. In
6oU. u. o., marched against the CITY.
gave IL up to the flames, loft not one
stone on another, dug canals through ia
ruins to bury IL under water, land, az
ne says IN his annals, overthrow ID even
more than II was done by tho deluee. y
DelitGseh's reconstruction had been of.
iected by means OF the three mighty
nenps nj rufus recently Investigated by
the English arch@ologist, Hormuzo
kassam," with the aid OF the ouneiform
literature and the accounts OF the Greek
writer's.