,
in the midst of villas and gardens, along the river-banks furnished in
time of peace an abode for the surplus population. The wall still rises
some five and twenty to thirty feet above the plain. Two mounds divided
by a ravine command its north-western side, their summits being occupied
by the ruins of two fine buildings--a temple and a palace.* Carchemish
was the last stage in a conqueror's march coming from the south.

* Karkamisha, Gargamish, was from the beginning associated
with the Carchemish of the Bible; but as the latter was
wrongly identified with Circesium, it was naturally located
at the confluence of the Khabur with the Euphrates. Hincks
fixed the site at Rum-Kaleh. G. Rawlinson referred it
cursorily to Hierapolis-Mabog, which position Maspero
endeavoured to confirm. Finzi, and after him G. Smith,
thought to find the site at Jerabis, the ancient Europos,
and excavations carried on there by the English have brought
to light in this place Hittite monuments which go back in
part to the Assyrian epoch. This identification is now
generally accepted, although there is still no direct proof
attainable, and competent judges continue to prefer the site
of Membij. I fall in with the current view, but with all
reserve.

[Illustration: 212.jpg THE TELL OF JERABIS IN ITS PRESENT CONDITION]

Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from a cut in the _Graphic_.

For an invader approaching from the east or north it formed his first
station. He had before him, in fact, a choice of the three chief fords
for crossing the Euphrates. That of Thapsacus, at the bend of the river
where it turns eastward to the Arabian plain, lay too far to the
south, and it could be reached only after a march through a parched
and desolate region where the army would run the risk of perishing from
thirst.

[Illustration: 213.jpg A NORTHERN SYRIAN]

Drawn by faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.

For an invader proceeding from Asia Minor, or intending to make his
way through the defiles of the Taurus, Samosata offered a convenient
fording-place; but this route would compel the general, who had Naharaim
or the kingdoms of Chaldaea in view, to make a long detour, and
although the Assyrians used it at a later period, at the time of their
expeditions to the valleys of the Halys, the Egyptians do not seem ever
to have travelled by this road. Carchemish, the place of the thir