Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-26
Arch Older Than Rome.

A valuable discovery at Fara was a
large arch sewer beneath the city.
Though We have long been taught that
the arch was of Roman origin. the arch
of this sewer was perfect and SYM
metrical. and from an age not far from
$500 B. c.. when the pre-Semitc Sumo
rians occupied the land. The bricks
used in its construction were plano-con-
Vex. resembling in shape and size a
to dark red. The plano-convex bricks
appear to have been the first burned
bricks ever employed.
Could the excavations have continued
a few weeks longer. more remarka ole
discoveries might have resulted. How
ever. the Germans then turned their at
tention to the ruins of Babylon on the
left bank of the Euphrates, seventy
miles south of Bagdad Unlike mos;
Babylonian cities. the site of Babylon
had never been quite forgotten. Trav-
elers Of every age have described it.
Nearly century ago large square
bricks bearing cuneiform inscriptions
with the name of NebachadnezZar were
taken to the British Museum. and the
ruins have long been profitable source
of revenue to the Arabs who searched
among them for bricks. Hillah, a city
Of 10000 people. is constructed of them.
The courtyards of the houses and a
large city square are paved with them
struction of an irrigating dam across
the Euphrates. and still the supply
seems inexhaustible.
The ruins of Babylon consist of three
rounding them is a ridge of dirt, reach
ing in places to a considera BILE height.
and representing the city walls. Herod-
otus says the walls were $50 feet high
and IS feet wide. Other writers claim
that they were from forty-two to fifty
six miles in circuit: that they were sur
rounded with 25O towers. and pierced
with 100 gateways with gates of bronze.
Though the Germans have attempted 10
trace the walls throughout their extent.
they have but partly succeeded. yet II
seems that the ancient writer's were
fairly accurate in their descriptions.
Tower of Babel, PerhapsP
OF the three larger mounds. Babel the
one to the north, still retains its ancient
name. Square in shape, it rises to height
OF over 100 feet. specially here have the
Arabs long been digging for bricks The
Germans have paid little attention to
this mound except to examine the walls
which the Arabs have uncovered DR..
Koldewey believes that an ancient struc-
| ture which gave rise to the biblical story
| Of the Tower Of Babel, stood there. At
| the base the Arab diggers have revealed
| the huge arches of passageways leading
/ tnrOUkn the IHOuIlu, anu tIey nave leu
some scholars to believe that they sup
ported the famous hanging gardens OF
| Babylon. 1t is supposed that the over
| hangink foliage of the several terraces
| had the appearance of being suspended
| in the air.
| The central OF the three large mounds
| is the Kasr. or the fortress so named by
| the Arabs because of the massive walls
| which have always projected from the
| surface. Here the Germans have made
| their most remarkable discoveries. 1t is
| the custom of the Germans TO employ
1 a force OF 200 men the year around. The
| men are divided into gangs OF twelve
| each. At the head of the gang is the
| pickman. who loosens the dirt; his pay
| is 70 cents a day. With him are three
| men with triangular hoes. who scrape
the dirt into baskets; their pay is ID
| cents a day. The remaining eight men
| of the gang are basket men who carry
/ the dirt from the trenches to the dump
or the car, their pay Is IL cents a
| day. Small children are employed at
| the rate of cents a day. 1t is only
at Babylon that narrow iron track.
with small push cars TO carry dirt to
employed in Babylonia.
The antiquities discovered in the Kasr
have not been SO ancient the Ger
mans had hoped. Babylon is modern
city when compared with other Babylo-
Man cities TO the south. Sennacherib King
OF Assyria from T0o to ISL, boasts that
he completely destroyed it, scrapng even
its foundations into the river; it is a
fact that little nothing previous to
SIENNA cherib's time has been found. The
Babylon whose ruins still exist is the
city OF NebuchadneZzar: the palaces and
temples the Germans have excavated were
constructed by him or by later kings.