has not yet been explored.
A tablet copied by George Smith gives us interesting details as to the plan
and dimensions of this famous temple of Bel; a plan based on these will be
found in Hommel's _Grundriss der Geographie und Geschichte des alten
Orients_, p. 321. There were three courts, the outer or great court, the
middle court of Ishtar and Zamama, and the inner court on the east side of
which was the tower of seven stages (known as the House of the Foundation
of Heaven and Earth), 90 metres high according to Hommel's calculation of
the measurements in the tablet; while on the west side was the temple
proper of Merodach and his wife Sarpanit or Zarpanit, as well as chapels of
Anu, Ea and Bel on either side of it. A winding ascent led to the summit of
the tower, where there was a chapel, containing, according to Herodotus, a
couch and golden table (for the showbread) but no image. The golden image
of Merodach 40 ft. high, stood in the temple below, in the sanctuary called
E-Kua or "House of the Oracle," together with a table, a mercy-seat and an
altar--all of gold. The deities whose chapels were erected within the
precincts of the temple enclosure were regarded as forming his court.
Fifty-five of these chapels existed altogether in Babylon, but some of them
stood independently in other parts of the city.

There are numerous gates in the walls both of E-Saggila and of the city,
the names of many of which are now known. Nebuchadrezzar says that he
covered the walls of some of them with blue enamelled tiles "on which bulls
and dragons were pourtrayed," and that he set up large bulls and serpents
of bronze on their thresholds.

The _Babil_ mound probably represents the site of a palace built by
Nebuchadrezzar at the northern extremity of the city walls and attached to
a defensive outwork 60 cubits in length. Since H. Rassam found remains of
irrigation works here it might well be the site of the Hanging Gardens.
These consisted, we are told, of a garden of trees and flowers, built on
the topmost of a series of arches some 75 ft. high, and in the form of a
square, each side of which measured 400 Greek ft. Water was raised from the
Euphrates by means of a screw (Strabo xvi. 1. 5; Diod. ii. 10. 6). In the
Jumjuma mound at the southern extremity of the old city the contract and
other business tablets of the Egibi firm were found.

See C. J. Rich, _Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon_ (1816), and _Collected
Memoirs_ (1839); A. H.