k of forcing them one after another, provided that they
were efficiently garrisoned. He erected across the northern side of the
isthmus between the two rivers a great embankment, faced with bricks
cemented together with bitumen, called the _Wall of Media_; this wall,
starting from Sippara, stretched from the confluence of the Saklauiyeh
with the Euphrates to the site of the modern village of Jibbara on the
Tigris; on both sides of it four or five deep trenches were excavated,
which were passable on raised causeways or by bridges of boats, so
arranged as to be easily broken up in case of invasion.

[Illustration: 456.jpg CITY DEFENDED BY A TRIPLE WALL]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief of the time of
Sargon, in the Museum of the Louvre.

The eastern frontier was furnished with a rampart protected by a wide
moat, following, between Jibbara and Nipur, the contours of a low-lying
district which could be readily flooded. The western boundary was
already protected by the Pallakottas, and the lakes or marshes of
Bahr-i-Nejif: Nebuchadrezzar multiplied the number of the dikes, and so
arranged them that the whole country between the suburbs of Borsippa and
Babylon could be inundated at will. Babylon itself formed as it were the
citadel in the midst of these enormous outlying fortifications, and
the engineers both of Nabopo-lassar and of his son expended all the
resources of their art on rendering it impregnable. A triple rampart
surrounded it and united it to Borsippa, built on the model of those
whose outline is so frequently found on the lowest tier of an Assyrian
bas-relief.

[Illustration: 457.jpg PROBABLE SECTION OF THE TRIPLE WALL OF BABYLON]

Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration by
Dieulafoy.

A moat of great width, with banks of masonry, communicating with
the Euphrates, washed the foot of the outer wall, which retained the
traditional name of Imgur-bel: behind this wall rose Nimitti-bel, the
true city wall, to a height of more than ninety feet above the level of
the plain, appearing from a distance, with its battlements and towers,
more like a mountain chain than a rampart built by the hand of man;
finally, behind Nimitti-bel ran a platform on the same level as the
curtain of Imgur-bel, forming a last barrier behind which the garrison
could rally before finally owning itself defeated and surrendering the
city. Large square towers rose at intervals along the face of the wal