t wild flowers. Then the
period of drought ensues; the sun rapidly burns up all vegetation, and
everywhere the eye is wearied by long stretches of brown and yellow
desert. Occasional sandstorms darken the heavens, sweeping over
sterile wastes and piling up the shapeless mounds which mark the sites
of ancient cities. Meanwhile the rivers are increasing in volume,
being fed by the melting snows at their mountain sources far to the
north. The swift Tigris, which is 1146 miles long, begins to rise
early in March and reaches its highest level in May; before the end of
June it again subsides. More sluggish in movement, the Euphrates,
which is 1780 miles long, shows signs of rising a fortnight later than
the Tigris, and is in flood for a more extended period; it does not
shrink to its lowest level until early in September. By controlling
the flow of these mighty rivers, preventing disastrous floods, and
storing and distributing surplus water, the ancient Babylonians
developed to the full the natural resources of their country, and made
it--what it may once again become--one of the fairest and most
habitable areas in the world. Nature conferred upon them bountiful
rewards for their labour; trade and industries flourished, and the
cities increased in splendour and strength. Then as now the heat was
great during the long summer, but remarkably dry and unvarying, while
the air was ever wonderfully transparent under cloudless skies of
vivid blue. The nights were cool and of great beauty, whether in
brilliant moonlight or when ponds and canals were jewelled by the
lustrous displays of clear and numerous stars which glorified that
homeland of the earliest astronomers.

Babylonia is a treeless country, and timber had to be imported from
the earliest times. The date palm was probably introduced by man, as
were certainly the vine and the fig tree, which were widely
cultivated, especially in the north. Stone, suitable for building, was
very scarce, and limestone, alabaster, marble, and basalt had to be
taken from northern Mesopotamia, where the mountains also yield copper
and lead and iron. Except Eridu, where ancient workers quarried
sandstone from its sea-shaped ridge, all the cities were built of
brick, an excellent clay being found in abundance. When brick walls
were cemented with bitumen they were given great stability. This
resinous substance is found in the north and south. It bubbles up
through crevices of rocks on river banks a