Babylon was
less a city than a fortified camp. The walls equipped with towers and
pierced by a hundred gates of brass were so thick that a chariot might
be driven on them. All around the wall was a large, deep ditch full of
water, with its sides lined with brick. The houses of the city were
constructed of three or four stories. The streets intersected at right
angles. The bridge and docks of the Euphrates excited admiration; the
fortified palace also, and the hanging gardens, one of the seven
wonders of the world. These gardens were terraces planted with trees,
supported by pillars and rows of arches.
=Tower of Babylon.=--Hard by the city Nebuchadnezzar had aimed to
rebuild the town of Babel. "For the admiration of men," he says in an
inscription: "I rebuilt and renovated the wonder of Borsippa, the
temple of the seven spheres of the world. I laid the foundations and
built it according to its ancient plan." This temple, in the form of a
square, comprised seven square towers raised one above another, each
tower being dedicated to one of the seven planets and painted with the
color attributed by religion to this planet.
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