p the Chaldeans, that
bitter and hasty nation which shall march through the breadth of the
land to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. Their horses are
swifter than leopards. Their horsemen spread themselves; (their
horsemen) shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat." They were a
people of knights, martial and victorious, like the Assyrians. They
subjected Susiana, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Jordan. But their regime
was short: founded in 625, the Babylonian Empire was overthrown by the
Persians in 538 B.C.

=Babylon.=--The mightiest of its kings, Nebuchadrezzar (or
Nebuchadnezzar), 604-561, who destroyed Jerusalem and carried the Jews
into captivity, built many temples and places in Babylon, his capital.
These monuments were in crude brick as the plain of the Euphrates has
no supply of stone; in the process of decay they have left only
enormous masses of earth and debris. And yet it has been possible on
the site of Babylon to recover some inscriptions and to restore the
plan of the city. The Greek Herodotus who had visited Babylon in the
fifth century B.C., describes it in detail. The city was surrounded by
a square wall cut by the Euphrates; it covered about 185 square miles,
or seven times the extent of Paris. This immense space was not filled
with houses; much of it was occupied with fields to be cultivated for
the maintenance of the people in the event of a siege. Babylon was
less a city than a fortified camp. The walls equipped with towers and
pierced by a hundred gates of brass were so thick that a chariot might
be driven on them. All around the wall was a large, deep ditch full of
water, with its sides lined with brick. The houses of the city were
constructed of three or four stories. The streets intersected at right
angles. The bridge and docks of the Euphrates excited admiration; the
fortified palace also, and the hanging gardens, one of the seven
wonders of the world. These gardens were terraces planted with trees,
supported by pillars and rows of arches.

=Tower of Babylon.=--Hard by the city Nebuchadnezzar had aimed to
rebuild the town of Babel. "For the admiration of men," he says in an
inscription: "I rebuilt and renovated the wonder of Borsippa, the
temple of the seven spheres of the world. I laid the foundations and
built it according to its ancient plan." This temple, in the form of a
square, comprised seven square towers raised one above another, each
tower being dedicated to one of the seven