chians and the Medes: which are the provinces defcribed commonly by Mo fes by the name of Kedem, or the Eaft. And these ancient Arabians lived in this country without mingling with any other people, till Ihmael and his family fettled amongit them; whence they were also called Nos-Arabes, or Moja Arabes, i. e. mixed Arabians.

The lame authors that give Joktan a fon camed Yarab, o foarab, bless him with another named Ad, the founder of the Adites, mentioned above; and with Thamond Tafni, and Giadis, all founders of different tribes amongst the rabians of which there is not the leat mention in fcripture.

S. You faid nothing material about the building of the tower of Babel.

T. I informed you that Noah brought his family into the plain of Shinaar; and it was neceffary to confider what has been related concerning the increase of mankind in the new world, before we could fpeak of fuch a mul titude, as met on this occafion, and were difperfed at the building of this tower, to people all the earth.-Therefore obferve, the building of this tower was interrupted juft before the birth of Peleg, in the year of the flood 101, according to the Hebrew computation; in the year 401, according to the Samaritan; and in 531 according the LXX. after the work had been carried on 22 years, according to fome, or 40 years according to others; but I think little credit is to be given to any of their computations, if you confider the 6th verfe of Gen. xi.

S. I defire you will favour me with

a defcription of it?

T. In the first place let me caution you against the extravagant accounts delivered of this tower by Ado, who raifeth its height to five-thoufand miles; by Ebn Amid and Eutychius, who reduceth it to twelve miles; and even that by Jerom, who has pretended to find its height, by actual furvey, to be four miles high; for they contradict all reafon, and do not depend

3

upon any authority of fcripture, or genuine antiquity. If we adhere to the facred records, Gen. xi. 4,-10, nothing is plainer than that the tower of Babel, begun by the defcendants of Noah, was not finished by them; for when the Lord had confounded their language, and scattered them abroad from thence, upon the face of all the earth, they left off to build; and befides it is as clear that God exerted his power, and obliged them to abandon their undertaking at the very beginning of the work, ver 6. And the belt heathen authorities, fpeaking of this tower, after it was finished by Nebuchadnezzar, raife it no more than 660 feet, and even that is a prodigious height, overtopping the greatest Egyptian pyramids 179 feet. And in this itate it is reprefented to confift of eight fquare towers, one above another, gradually decreafing in breadth i which, with the winding of the stairs from the top to the bottom, on the outfide, gave it the refemblance of a pyramid.

:

The Mofaic Babel was built of burnt bricks and flime, Gen. xi. 3. Those bricks, according to eastern tradition, were each thirteen cubits long, ten broad, and five thick and the flime by which thefe bricks were cemented, was a pitchy fubftance or bitumen brought from Is or Hit, a city in the neighbourhood of Babylon; and, according to Herodotus, gathered in a fmall river of the fame name, which runs into the Euphrates, and carries with its waters many lumps of bitumen, which are carried thence to the walls of Babylon; and, as Diodorus witneffeth, ferves the inhabitants in thofe parts for fewel, as well as for building; for, being dried, it will burn like wood. Hit is called Eliopolis by Ifidore of Charax, who alfo mentions the Springs of bitumen about it; called by the Arabs, Oyun Hit; i. e. the fountains of Hit: and by the Perfians, Chefbmchkir, i. e. the fountain of pitch. This liquid-bitumen they

call

t

call Nafta, and the Turks, to diftinguish it from common pitch, give it the name of Harah Sakir, or black maftich. Some authors write it Heit, Eit, Ait or ldt; and it is still a great Turkish town on the weft fide of Euphrates, and defended by a castle, much frequented by the Europeans that travel to Perfia and India over land; who inform us, that on the S. W. of the caftle, and about three miles from the town, in a valley, are many fprings ftill remaining, of this black substance; each of which makes a noife like a fmith's forge, inceffantly puffing and blowing out the matter fo loud, that it may be heard a mile off: wherefore the Moors [Arabs] call it Bal al jebennam or Hell-gate. It if fues from a certain lake, fending forth a filthy smoak, and continually boiling over with the pitch, which fpreads itself over a great field, that is always full of it fo that if it was not that the inundations of the Euphrates carry it away, which cover all the fands from the place where it rifes to the river, there would have been mountains of it long fince; though it is free for every body to take; and is used for fewel, to caulk or pitch boats, and to pitch the outside of their houfes made of palm-tree branches.

As to the name of Babel, it fignifies confufion; because God confounded the language of thofe men, who were employed about this edifice, fo that they could not longer understand one another. And, therefore, the pretence of its taking its name from one Belus, King of Babylon, is trifling; befides, the age of Belus is much later than the date of the building of this tower.

S. Are there any remains of the tower of Babel now extant ?

T. Not only the tower, but the great and celebrated city of Babylon are fo entirely fallen into decay, and brought to nought long ago, that the very natives of the country are not

certain of their fituation. It is true the inhabitants have a tradition, that Carcuftate Nemeru, or Karkuf, or Agarkuf, as it is differently wrote, about nine miles to the W. or N. W、 of Baghdad, are the remains of Babel; which is confpicuous at a vast diftance, refembling a little fhapeless mountain, rather than a tower, only it is rather square than round, in the middle of a wide plain between the Euphrates and Tigris. It is quite a heap of rubbish. The Sieur de la Boullaye le Gouze, who fays he made a long ftay at Babylon or Baghdad, declares, that, about three miles from this city, there is a tower called Megara, fituate between the Tigris and the Euphrates, in an open field. This tower, fays he, is all folid within, and is more like a mountain than a tower, whofe compass is about fivehundred paces; and as the rains and winds have much ruined it, it cannot be more than about 138 feet high. It is built of bricks four inches thick; and, between every feven courses of bricks, there is a course of straw three inches thick mixed with pitch or bitumen; and from the top to the bottom are reckoned about fifty courfes. But he cannot give into the vulgar tradition of this being the Mofaic Babel; and rather thinks that this tower was built by fome Arabian Prince, to fix a beacon upon, to affemble his fubjects in time of war or danger, as the Arabs themselves suppose.

Rauwolf, a German Phyfician, in 1574, thought that he had discovered the ruins of Babylon, and its tower, upon the Euphrates, near Felujia, about 36 miles S. of Baghdad. The village Felujia, or, as he improperly writes it, Elugo, which was the landing-place for Baghdad, is, fays he, fituate where formerly Babylon flood; but at prefent there is not an house for the fhelter of paffengers. Though here are many delicate antiquities, ftill ftanding in great defolation, viz.

fome

fome pieces and arches of the old bridge over Euphrates, built wonder. fully strong of brick, and over a place, where the Euphrates, is half a league broad near the bridge are heaps of Babylonih pitch; and juft before the village, is the hill whereon the caftle did stand in a plain; and though it is now quite demolished, I could fee fome remains of the fortification. Not far behind it ftood the tower of Babel, ftill to be feen half a league in diameter, but fo entirely ruined, fo low, and fo full of venomous beafts, that have made holes through it, that one dare not approach within half a mile of it, except in two months of the year, when thofe animals do not ftir out. Compare this account with Ifa. xiii. 19, 22.

But how certain foever this traveller was, that he had difcovered the loft remains of Babylon and Babel; the curious Della Valle, about 42 years after, was as certain that he had found them about a quarter of a league from Euphrates, S. W. by S. from Baghdad, where that excellent traveller fays, in the middle of a vaft and level plain, appears a heap of ruined buildings, like a huge mountain, the materials of which are fo confounded together, that one knows not what to make of it. Its figure is fquare, and rifes in form of a tower or pyramid with four fronts, about a quarter of a league long from N. to S. though fomewhat lefs from E. to W. called by the Arabs vulgarly Babil: but he does not pretend to trace the ruins of the city on the contrary, he adds, There appear no marks of ruins without the compass of that huge mafs, to convince one fo great a city as Babylon, had ever ftood there.

The height of this mountain of ruins, continues he, is not in every part equal, but exceeds the highest palace in Naples. It is a misfhapen mafs, wherein there is no appearance of regularity. In fome places it rifeth

in points, is craggy, and inacceffible: in others it is fmoother, and of eafier afcent; every where much decayed with the torrents of water which had run down in tracks from the top to the bottom. And though it does not appear whether there were any doors to enter into it, there are fome grottoes within; yet fo ruined, that nothing can be collected from them; and he confiders them to be of a more modern date, or made fince by the peafants for fhelter. The Mabometans have a notion that these grottoes or caverns were appointed by God, as places of punishment to Harut and Marut, two angels, who, they pretend, were fent from heaven to judge the crimes of men, but did not execute their commiffion as they ought.

Mr. Mac-Gregory confirms this account of Della Valle's, in his Sepulchres of the Ancients, p. 35, &c. and gives his own conjectures of its primitive architecture, and refemblance with the tower of Belus defcribed by Herodotus. Yet, after all this, I prefume it is mere conjecture: for this feems to be only another modern ftructure, built by the Arabian Princes to watch their country, or raise a beacon upon. So that it may be pofitively faid, there are now no certain tokens of the fituation of the original tower of Babel. And, therefore, fays the learned and judicious Calmet, It is highly probable, that all the accounts of this tower, except what we find concerning it in fcripture, is fabulous; and that the remains of fome towers, which are fhewn to travellers in the province of Babylon, are far from being those of the tower of Babel; and are no other than the ruins of old Ba bylon built by Nebuchadnezzar.

S. I should, however, be glad to know the hiftory of that ancient city of Babylon, its foundation, extent, &c.

T. That you fhall have, in its proper place. (To be continued.)

The