far larger scale; while
the eastern is a lofty mountain region, consisting for the most part of
five or six parallel ranges, and mounting in many places far above the
level of perpetual snow.

It is with the western or plain tract that we are here concerned.
Between the outer limits of the Syro-Arabian desert and the foot of the
great mountain range of Kurdistan and Luristan intervenes a territory
long famous in the world's history, and the chief site of three out of
the five empires of whose history, geography, and antiquities it is
proposed to treat in the present volumes. Known to the Jews as
Aram-Naharaim, or "Syria of the two rivers;" to the Greeks and Romans as
Mesopotamia, or "the between-river country;" to the Arabs as Al-Jezireh,
or "the island," this district has always taken its name from the
streams, which constitute its most striking feature, and to which, in
fact, it owes its existence. If it were not for the two great
rivers--the Tigris and Euphrates--with their tributaries, the more
northern part of the Mesopotamian lowland would in no respect differ
from the Syro-Arabian desert on which it adjoins, and which in latitude,
elevation, and general geological character it exactly resembles.
Towards the south, the importance of the rivers is still greater; for of
Lower Mesopotamia it may be said, with more truth than of Egypt, that it
is "an acquired land," the actual "gift" of the two streams which wash
it on either side; being, as it is, entirely a recent formation--a
deposit which the streams have made in the shallow waters of a gulf into
which they have flowed for many ages.

The division, which has here forced itself upon our notice, between the
Upper and the Lower Mesopotamian country, is one very necessary to engage
our attention in connection with the ancient Chaldaea. There is no
reason to think that the terns Chaldaea had at anytime the extensive
signification of Mesopotamia, much less that it applied to the entire
flat country between the desert and the mountains. Chaldaea was not the
whole, but a part of, the great Mesopotamian plain; which was ample
enough to contain within it three or four considerable monarchies.
According to the combined testimony of geographers and historians,
Chaldaea lay towards the south, for it bordered upon the Persian Gulf;
and towards the west, for it adjoined Arabia. If we are called upon
to fix more accurately its boundaries, which, like those of most
countri