The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-07-07
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES CASTLE
DIGGING INTO THE MIGHTY
MOUNDS OF BABYLON.
An Incredible Labor by Astrological
Researches in the Last Eleven
Years. The Sacred Way.


Years. The Sacred Way.
Across the dead fiat of the Me
sopotamian plain, scanned with an
cient water channels, sun-drencheC
and arid, heaves itself up might!
mound. There is no need to ask its
name; as certainly as if temple and
fortress wall still crowned its sum.
NIT you know it to be Babylon, the
northern mound that yet bears the
famous title Babil. The city wall
stretches out southeastward from it,
then turns back sharply toward the
Eupharates, wall and river inclosing
in a huge triangle the area of the
town. Great mounds, covering the
sites of palaces and temples, lie near
the river, and by the waters edge,
buried in palm trees, stands the
house in which the German excava-
tors have lived and worked for the
past eleven years. Upon the travel
er who enters its hospitable doors
there falls a sense of Thanksgiving
for the best fruits of civilization;
studious activity, hard-wOn learning,
and that Open-hearted kindness
which abolishes distinctions of race
and country. AS he watches the
daily task of the little group of men
who are recovering for us the long
buried history of the past he will
scarcely know how to divide his ad-
miratiOn between the almost incredi-
bic labor entailed by their researches
and the marvellous culture that their
work has laid bare. "Only to the
wise is wisdom given, and knowledge
to them that have understanding.
Northumberland Palace.
Within the largest mound. the
kasr or castle, as the Arabs call it,
lie the remains of Nebuchadnezzar's
palace. Another eight or ten years
work will be needed to complete the
ground plan of the whole structure,
but enough has been done to show
the nature of the house in which the
king rested. 1t is built of large
square tiles, stamped with his name
and bound together with asphalt,
The pair which has been excavated
consists of an immense irregular in
closure surrounded by thick walls;
one of these tit forms the quay of a
canaD is called by the workmen the
latest of 22"-i e., it is % meters
across. Another reaches the respect
able width of u meters; but usually
the royal builder was content with
i've or six meters, and even less.
Within there is a beWildering COM
plexity of small courts and passages,
with chambers leading out of them,
all the more bewildering because in
many cases the bricks have disap-
peared.
Babylon was used as a quarry by
Greek, Parthian and Arab; and the
walls must be traced by means of
the spaces left behind after the re-
moval of the building materials. The
ordinary man when he sees a hole in
the ground is inclined to state round
ly that it is a hole; but he must go
more cautiously here. His hole is
not hole, but a wall. The small
courts and chambers, no doubt Oc-
cupied by retinues of officials and
servants of the palace, formed a bull
wark of defense for the king. His
apartments lie behind court, paved
with double layers of tiles. From
the court doorway leads into an
immense oblong chamber, in the back
wall of which is a niche for the
throne. This is believed to be the
banqueting hall in which Belshazzar
made his feast, and on a fragment
of the wall facing the throne you
may see, if you please, the fingers
of mans handwriting the Omnous
message. Behind the banquetting
hail are the private chambers, and
behind all a narrow passage leading
to an emergency exit by means of
which the king could escape to the
Euphrates in the last extremity of
danger.
Earlier Buildings.
Nebuchadnezzar' father, Nabopo-
lassar, had built himself a smaller
but still very considerable dwelling
which occupied the western side of
the mound. This Nebuchadnezzar
destroyed, filled up the halls and
chambers with rutble and masonry
and laid out his own palace above
it. A wide incline road was con-
structed so that he might go down
in comfort and watch the progress
of the work; it was gradually filled
up as the walls rose, but was brought
to light again as the upper struc-
lures were destroyed by the exca-
vators in order that the lower might
be reached. They have thus recov-
cred the plan of both buildings.
Above the Babylon walls lie remains
of Greek and Parthian settlements,
each of which has to be carefully
planned before it can be swept away
and the lower strata studied. And
more than this-work is at present
being carried on in a mound which
formed one of the most ancient parts
of the city, and the excavation pits
have been sunk II or Is meters