is on the same side of the
Euphrates with the ruins of the Great Palace, whereas Herodotus makes
the two buildings balance each other, one on the right and the other
on the left bank of the stream. Now here it is in the first place to
be observed that Herodotus is the only writer who does this. No other
ancient author tells us anything of the relative situation of the two
buildings. We have thus nothing to explain but the bald statement of a
single writer--a writer no doubt of great authority, but still one not
wholly infallible. We might say, then, that Herodotus probably made a
mistake--that his memory failed him in this instance, or that he mistook
his notes on the subject. Or we may explain his error by supposing that
he confounded a canal from the Euphrates, which seems to have
anciently passed between the Babil mound and the Kasr (called Shebil by
Nebuchadnezzar) with the main stream. Or, finally, we may conceive
that at the time of his visit the old palace lay in ruins, and that the
palace of Nerig-lissar on the west bank of the stream was that of which
he spoke. It is at any rate remarkable, considering how his authority is
quoted as fixing the site of the Belus tower to the west bank, that, in
the only place where he gives us any intimation of the side of the river
on which he would have placed the tower, it is the east and not the west
bank to which his words point. He makes those who saw the treachery of
Zopyrus at the Belian and Kissian gates, which must have been to the
east of the city, at once take refuge in the famous sanctuary, which he
implies was in the vicinity.

On the whole, therefore, it seems best to regard the Babil mound as the
ziggurat of the great temple of Bel (called by some "the tomb of Belus")
which the Persians destroyed and which Alexander intended to restore.
With regard to the "hanging gardens," as they were an erection of less
than half the size of the tower, it is not so necessary to suppose that
distinct traces must remain of them. Their debris may be confused with
those of the Kasr mound, on which one writer places them. Or they may
have stood between the Kasr and Amran ruins, where are now some mounds
of no great height. Or, possibly, their true site is in the modern El
Homeira, the remarkable red mound which lies east of the Kasr at the
distance of about 800 yards, and attains an elevation of sixty-five
feet. Though this building is not situated upon the banks of the
Euphrates,