It was full of streets and
houses, with such fields and vineyards, that it was like a whole country
walled in; and the soil was exceedingly rich, being all brought down
from the Armenian hills by the Euphrates. As this river rose in the
mountains of Armenia, it used to overflow in the spring, when the snows
melted and swelled the stream; but to prevent mischief, the country was
covered with a network of canals, to draw off the water in safety. The
pride of the city was the Temple of Bel, which is thought to have been
built on a fragment of the Tower of Babel. It was a pile of enormous
height, with seven stages in honour of the seven planets then known, and
with a winding ascent leading from one to the other. On the top was the
shrine, where stood Bel's golden image, twelve cubits high, and before
it a golden table where meats and wine were served up to him. On either
side of the river were two palaces, joined together by a bridge, and the
nearer one, four miles round, with wonderful grounds, containing what
were called the hanging gardens, namely, a hill which Nebuchadnezzar
had caused to be raised by heaping up earth, and planted with trees, to
please his Median queen, whose eye pined for her native mountains in the
flats of Babylon.
Pages:
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84