on
the top of the tower, was an observatory, by the benefit of which the
Babylonians became more expert in astronomy than all other nations, and
made, in a short time, the great progress in it ascribed to them in
history.

But the chief use to which this tower was designed, was the worship of the
god Belus or Baal, as also that of several other deities; for which reason
there was a multitude of chapels in different parts of the tower. The
riches of this temple in statues, tables, censers, cups, and other sacred
vessels, all of massy gold, were immense. Among other images, there was
one forty feet high, which weighed a thousand Babylonish talents. The
Babylonish talent, according to Pollux in his _Onomasticon_, contained
seven thousand Attic drachmas, and consequently was a sixth part more than
the Attic talent, which contains but six thousand drachmas.

According to the calculation which Diodorus makes of the riches contained
in this temple, the sum total amounts to six thousand three hundred
Babylonish talents of gold.

The sixth part of six thousand three hundred is one thousand and fifty;
consequently six thousand three hundred Babylonish talents of gold are
equivalent to seven thousand three hundred and fifty Attic talents of
gold.

Now seven thousand three hundred and fifty Attic talents of silver are
worth upwards of two millions and one hundred thousand pounds sterling.
The proportion between gold and silver among the ancients we reckon as ten
to one; therefore seven thousand three hundred and fifty Attic talents of
gold amount to above one and twenty millions sterling.

This temple stood till the time of Xerxes;(994) but he, on his return from
his Grecian expedition, demolished it entirely, after having first
plundered it of all its immense riches. Alexander, on his return to
Babylon from his Indian expedition, purposed to have rebuilt it; and in
order thereto, set ten thousand men to work, to rid the place of its
rubbish; but, after they had laboured herein two months, Alexander died,
and that put an end to the undertaking.

Such were the chief works which rendered Babylon so famous; the greater
part of them are ascribed by profane authors to Semiramis, to whose
history it is now time to return.

When she had finished all these great undertakings, she thought fit to
make a progress through the several parts of her empire;(995) and,
wherever she came, left monuments of her magnificence by many noble
str