, was a town by itself--an entirely distinct place
from Babylon. To include Borsippa within the outer wall of Babylon is to
run counter to all the authorities on the subject, the inscriptions, the
native writer, Berosus, and the classical geographers generally. Nor
is the position thus assigned to the Belus temple in harmony with the
statement of Herodotus, which alone causes explorers to seek for the
temple on the west side of the river. For, though the expression which
this writer uses does not necessarily mean that the temple was in the
exact centre of one of the two divisions of the town, it certainly
implies that it lay towards the middle of one division--well within
it--and not upon its outskirts. It is indeed inconceivable that the
main sanctuary of the place, where the kings constantly offered their
worship, should have been nine or ten miles from the palace! The
distance between the Amran mound and Babil, which is about two miles, is
quite as great as probability will allow us to believe existed between
the old residence of the kings and the sacred shrine to which they were
in the constant habit of resorting.

Still there remain as objections to the identification of the great
temple with the Babil mound the two arguments already noticed. The Babil
mound has no appearance of stages such as the Birs presents, nor has it
even a pyramidical shape. It is a huge platform with a nearly level
top, and sinks, rather than rises, in the centre. What has become, it is
asked, of the seven upper stages of the great Belus tower, if this ruin
represents it? Whither have they vanished? How is it that in crumbling
down they have not left something like a heap towards the middle? To
this it may be replied that the destruction of the Belus tower has not
been the mere work of the elements--it was violently broken down either
by Xerxes, or by some later king, who may have completely removed all
the upper stages. Again, it has served as a quarry to the hunters after
bricks for more than twenty centuries; so that it is only surprising
that it still retains so much of its original shape. Further, when
Alexander entered Babylon more than 2000 years ago 10,000 men were
employed for several weeks in clearing away the rubbish and laying bare
the foundations of the building. It is quite possible that a conical
mass of crumbled brick may have been removed from the top of the mound
at this time.

The difficulty remains that the Babil mound