The morning journal-courier., 1908-11-30
BABYLON DESCRIBED
Lecture at Foy Auditorium by Field Director of Recent Ex-
 petition to Persia.
OF BABEL STANDING
Many Other Bible Localities De- scribed us They Appear at the
 Present Time.

A most interesting and instructive address was given yesterday at tho mems meeting, Foy auditorium, by Edgar James Banks, field director of tho recent Babylonian expedition of tho University of Chicago, formerly American consul at Bagdad.
 i4 He contrasted the Babylon of old with the ruins of to-day and very vividly portrayed its glorS nf the past and its desoation of the present. IL ] takes thirty-fye days to reach Baby i lon from Jerusalem--onger than 1t | takes to go from New Haven to Jeru- i salem. It is reached one way by means of rafts made of goat skins SC curely fastened together. The people l live in huts. the covering of which is made from goat hair The family sleeps on the floor, and food is cooked in an earthen oven which Is heated i by manure from camels ovens have l been excavatcd of this sort which are l over 5000 years old.
 The first city he described was Bag dad. An ancient tablet was found ] showing several interesting things in volyed in the crossing of the river in capturing the city Men were shown swimming on goat skins, and Dr. Banks related one instance where he mad seen woman swimming the mighty Tigris river on a watermelon. The boats they use are of the shape of tubs. A few miles from Bagdad may be seen the walls of Nebuchad- i nozzars palace, where each brick used in It's construction bears his inscrip- l ton
 1 He described Corsibad, where Is to be found the palace of Sargon, which covers twenty-seven acres of ground. 1 The roof is 160 feet in height. Nine yah is not far distant from here, the walls of which are now standing In ] the city there are two mounds, one of them supposed to be the burial place l of Jonan. The only excavation ever made on this mound was made by an Englishman who contracted to dig a cellar for a native of the place to build upon Mr. Banks stated that this was the biggest cellar ever dug as under this guse many tunnels were made, and most valuable discov- cries found Among them was found the story of the creation of the world according to the Babylonian version.
 MT. Banks visited several tombs such as the Tomb of Ezra, and the tomb of Joshua. The latter he man aged to enter under disguise as 2 Turk
 He visited UT of the Chaldees, tho old home of Abraham, every brick in tho tower of which was inscribed with the name of Belsha2zcr, which conclusively proved the existence o Daniel. He said that ten years ago f was claimed that there was no sucf race as the Hittites, but that to-day they have been located.
 In Bismaya he found the most an cient statue in the world. It Is oveI 5000 years of age, is made of marble and bears the name of David. O course it was made long before tl' birth of David of the Bible Here h. found the ancient palace Of Nebuchad ne2zar, in which he located the cylln der of Cyrus in which was related td' fall of Babylon, comparing in ever,
 detail with the account given in tl, Bible
 The tower of Babel is located nea here, and at the present time is 15 feet above the level of the plain, I Is the highest ruin in Babylon, an, tablet which was unearthcd relate a declaration by Nebuchadncz2er stat ing that 1t was of such antiquity fl
 his day that It's origin was entirel
 unknown.