erself to surpass all her
predecessors in magnificence, and to that end she undertook the building
of the mighty Babylon,(978) in which work she employed two millions of
men, which were collected out of all the provinces of her vast empire.
Some of her successors endeavoured to adorn that city with new works and
embellishments. I shall here speak of them all together, in order to give
the reader a more clear and distinct idea of that stupendous city.

The principal works which rendered Babylon so famous, are the walls of the
city; the quays and the bridge; the lake, banks, and canals, made for the
draining of the river; the palaces, hanging gardens, and the temple of
Belus; works of such a surprising magnificence, as is scarce to be
comprehended. Dr. Prideaux having treated this subject with great extent
and learning, I have only to copy, or rather abridge him.

I. _The Walls._--Babylon stood on a large plain, in a very fat and rich
soil.(979) The Avails were every way prodigious. They were in thickness
eighty-seven feet, in height three hundred and fifty, and in compass four
hundred and eighty furlongs, which make sixty of our miles. These walls
were drawn round the city in the form of an exact square, each side of
which was one hundred and twenty furlongs,(980) or fifteen miles, in
length, and all built of large bricks cemented together with bitumen, a
glutinous slime arising out of the earth in that country, which binds much
stronger and firmer than mortar, and soon grows much harder than the
bricks or stones themselves which it cements together.

These walls were surrounded on the outside with a vast ditch, full of
water, and lined with bricks on both sides. The earth that was dug out of
it made the bricks wherewith the walls were built; and therefore, from the
vast height and breadth of the walls may be inferred the greatness of the
ditch.

In every side of this great square were twenty-five gates, that is, a
hundred in all, which were all made of solid brass; and hence it is, that
when God promises to Cyrus the conquest of Babylon, he tells him,(981)
that he would break in pieces before him the gates of brass. Between every
two of these gates were three towers, and four more at the four corners of
this great square, and three between each of these corners and the next
gate on either side; every one of these towers was ten feet higher than
the walls. But this is to be understood only of those parts of the wall
w