say, that they are so firmly united by cement, that "it is utterly impossible to detach any of them."

At the present day, there are fewer vestiges of very ancient buildings left in Central Asia, than might have been expected, from the accounts which have been handed down to us of the early civilization, and the magnificent and stupendous works, of this cradle of the world. This has been justly attributed to the devastating effects of conquest, and to the perishable nature of the materials of which their buildings were usually constructed. When we remember, that, from a deficiency of stone, they commonly made use of brick, and that these fertile but unfortunate regions have, since the dominion of the Assyrians, been successively overrun by the Medes, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Saracens, and the Turks, we shall cease to wonder at the utter destruction which has so generally been effected.

Babylon and Nineveh appear both to have existed at the same time, and to have been nearly of the same magnitude, namely, from fifty to sixty miles in circumference. The accounts which ancient authors, apt to exaggerate, have given of the architectural wonders which these cities displayed, must perhaps be taken with some degree of distrust; but when we consider the facility which the state of society afforded, for the employment of vast masses of people in the construction of public works, we shall not find it necessary to make the abatements, which, judging from their want of mechanical power, we might otherwise think necessary. The taste of the people of remote antiquity was remarkable every where for a love of cumbrous vastness. Magnitude was the sentiment which chiefly entered into their idea of architectural magnificence. Their rulers, whether civil, military, or ecclesiastical, were all imbued with the same propensity; and the public works which they produced partook of the same character. The ancient nations of the East were little else than powerful bands of robbers, associated together, under chiefs, for the purposes of conquest and plunder. They spoiled the surrounding countries of their wealth, and heaped it up in their own treasuries, or lav

ishly used it, in seasons of peace, for affording employment and subsistence to their swarming myriads, in the erection of those structures, either for the purposes of security, or of luxury and pride, the extent of which fills us with astonishment.

Babylon was situated in the extensive plain of Shinar, at the top of the luxuriant Delta, formed by the Euphrates and the Tigris. It was probably founded by Nimrod, about the same time as the celebrated tower,—that is, at an early period after the flood; but history informs us, that it was rebuilt by the celebrated Assyrian Queen Semiramis, twelve hundred years before the Christian era, and enlarged and perfected by Nebuchadnezzar, about six centuries afterwards. The walls which encompassed the city, are said by Herodotus, probably with great exaggeration, to have been three hundred and eighty feet high, and eighty-seven feet in thickness. They were built of brick, laid in mortar made of bitumen, and surrounded by a ditch, out of which the bricks had been made. They were afterwards reduced to the height of fifty cubits, by Darius Hystaspes.

The present state of this once magnificent city, demonstrates the instability of all earthly greatness, while it exhibits a very striking instance of the fulfilment of prophecy. It was foretold of this place, which seemed formed to resist all powers of decay, that it should "become heaps ;" and nothing can more graphically describe its present ruinous condition. Immense tumuli of temples, palaces, and human habitations of every description, form, in all directions, long and varied lines of ruins, which in some places "rather resemble natural hills, than mounds covering the remains of great and splendid edifices."*"Long mounds, running from north to south, are crossed by others from east to west," and are only distinguished by their form, direction, and number, from the decayed banks of canals. "Our path," says Captain Mignan, "lay though the great mass of ruined heaps on the site of shrunken Babylon;' and I

* Porter's Travels,' vol. ii. pp. 294–297.

am perfectly incapable of conveying an adequate idea of the dreary, lonely nakedness which lay before me. ""* "The decomposing materials of a Babylonian structure," again observes Sir Robert K. Porter, "doom the earth, on which they perish, to lasting sterility. On this part of the plain, both where traces of buildings were left, and where none had stood, all seemed equally naked of vegetation, the whole ground appearing as if it had been washed over and over again, by the coming and receding waters, till every bit of genial soil was swept away; its half clayey, half sandy surface, being left in ridgy streaks, like what is often seen on the flat shores of the sea, after the retreating of the tide."

It is particularly worthy of remark, that of the immense walls of this ruined city, not a trace remains. "The broad walls of Babylon," said the prophet, "shall be utterly broken down;" and this prophecy has been fulfilled to the letter. Some slight remains of the arches on which were spread the hanging gardens attached to the walls, may here and there be remarked; but as to the walls themselves, Mr. Rich observes, "I have not been fortunate enough to discover the least trace of them in any part of the ruins at Hillah; which," he adds, "is rather an unaccountable circumstance, considering that they survived the final ruin of the town, long after which they served as an enclosure for a park; in which comparatively perfect state, St. Jerome informs us, they remained in his time." It is curious to attend to the gradual disappearance of these mighty erections. In the sixteenth century, both the inner and outer walls, mentioned by Herodotus, could still be distinctly traced, and are described by Rauwolff, who visited the site, as two ascents, "distinguished by a ditch, and extending themselves like unto two parallel walls a great way about." The bricks, of which they were built, have been carried off, to erect other towns; while the rains of centuries, and the annual inundations of the Euphrates, have completed their extinction.

TENTH WEEK-FRIDAY.

ARCHITECTURE.-ITS ANCIENT HISTORY AND PRACTICECENTRAL ASIA-NINEVEH-PETRA.

LITTLE is known of Nineveh, and that little is obscured with fable. Its destruction was effected before the date of authentic profane history, and those ancient historians who have recorded the tradition of its greatness and its fate, could only have been personal witnesses of its ruins. Before Herodotus, the oldest of these historians, wrote, it had long ceased to exist as the habitation of living men. Sacred Scripture, indeed, speaks of it as a city of vast extent, great population, and immense riches; but from the prophetical writings, which alone allude to it, no particular account of the nature of its edifices was to be expected. By heathen historians, its walls are said to have been a hundred feet in height, and sixty miles in compass, defended by fifteen hundred towers, each two hundred feet high. It was twice taken, first by Arbaces, about seven centuries and a half before the Christian era, and then by Cyaxares, after an interval of about eighty years, when it was finally destroyed; and so completely had the work of destruction been effected, that the very place where once it stood and awed the world, was for many centuries unknown, and still remains doubtful. This is one of the doomed cities of holy writ; and the prediction which foretold that the Lord would "make an utter end of the place thereof," that it should become "a desolation, and dry like a wilderness," has been accomplished to the letter.

There were various other stupendous works of art, in these extensive, and now comparatively desert regions, of which ancient history speaks. Among these, the palace of Persepolis, whose ruins are still conspicuous, and the temple of Solomon, are the most remarkable of the era to which I allude. Of Palmyra and Balbec, the wonderful remains belong to a later period, being decidedly of Roman origin.

I shall not, however, stop to give any description of these specimens of ancient art. Of Solomon's magnificent and pious work, an ample description is contained in the sacred volume; and Persepolis, having been built by Egyptian workmen, exhibits too many traces of its origin to require more than a reference to what has been already said on that style of architecture. But there is one very remarkable trace of an ancient city in the southwest quarter of this region, which I must not pass over ;—I allude to that of Petra, the celebrated capital of the descendants of Esau. This singular place has only lately been minutely surveyed; and, indeed, little more was known of it than that it was once the site of a flourishing city, till after the commencement of the present century, when it was visited first by Burckhardt, and afterwards, by Captains Irby and Mangles, whose interesting accounts, as quoted by Dr. Keith, I shall follow.*

A narrow and circuitous defile, surrounded on each side by precipitous or perpendicular rocks, varying from four hundred to seven hundred feet in altitude, and forming, for two miles, a sort of subterranean passage, opens on the east the way to the ruins of Petra. The rocks, or rather hills, then diverge on either side, and leave an oblong space, where once stood the metropolis of Edom, and where now lies a waste of ruins, encircled on every side, save on the northeast, by stupendous cliffs, which still show how the pride and labor of art tried there to vie with the sublimity of Nature. Along the borders of these cliffs, detached masses of rock, numerous and lofty, have been wrought into sepulchres, the interior of which is excavated into chambers, while the exterior has been cut from the live rock into forms of towers, with pilasters, and successive bands of frieze and entablature, wings, recesses, figures of animals, and columns. Yet, numerous as these are, they form but a part of the vast necropolis of Petra.† Tombs present themselves, not

* [Yet more recently, the wonderful ruins of Petra have been visited by our countryman, Mr. Stevens, and described by him in a most lively manner in his published Travels.—AM. ED.]

† [Necropolis means a city of the dead.-AM. ED.]