distance of about 800 yards, is the
remaining great mass of ruins, the mound of Jumjuma, or of Amran. [PLATE
XII., Fig. 3.] The general shape of this mound is triangular,107 but it
is very irregular and ill-defined, so as scarcely to admit of accurate
description. Its three sides face respectively a little east of north,
a little south of east, and a little south of west. The south-western
side, which runs nearly parallel with the Euphrates, and seems to have
been once washed by the river, is longer than either of the others,
extending a distance of above a thousand yards, while the south-eastern
may be 800 yards, and the north-eastern 700. Innumerable ravines
traverse the mound on every side, penetrating it nearly to its centre.
The surface is a series of undulations. Neither masonry nor sculpture is
anywhere apparent.

All that meets the eye is a mass of debris; and the researches hitherto
made have failed to bring to light any distinct traces of building.
Occasionally bricks are found, generally of poor material, and bearing
the names and titles of some of the earlier Babylonian monarchs; but the
trenches opened in the pile have in no case laid bare even the smallest
fragment of a wall.

Besides the remains which have been already described, the most
remarkable are certain long lines of rampart on both sides of the river,
which lie outside of the other ruins, enclosing them all, except the
mound of Babil. On the left bank of the stream there is to be traced,
in the first place, a double line of wall or rampart, having a direction
nearly due north and south, which lies east of the Kasr and Amran
mounds, at the distance from them of about 1000 yards. Beyond this is a
single line of rampart to the north-east, traceable for about two miles,
the direction of which is nearly from north-west to south-east, and a
double line of rampart to the south-east, traceable for a mile and a
half, with a direction from northeast to south-west. The two lines in
this last case are from 600 to 700 yards apart, and diverge from one
another as they run out to the north-east. The inner of the two meets
the north-eastern rampart nearly at a right angle, and is clearly a
part of the same work. It is questioned, however, whether this line of
fortification is ancient, and not rather a construction belonging to
Parthian times.

A low line of mounds is traceable between the western face of the Amran
and Kasr hills, and the present eastern bank