File:Chal. Behind the hills lies Lower Tkhuma and Salabekan valleys.jpg

Identifier: cradleofmankindl00wigrrich (find matches)
Title: The cradle of mankind; life in eastern Kurdistan
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Wigram, W. A. (William Ainger), 1872-1953 Wigram, Edgar Thomas Ainger, Sir, 1864-1935
Subjects: Kurds Kurdistan -- Description and travel
Publisher: London, A. & C. Black, ltd.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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consolation one canfrom the fact that at least good and accurate plans of thewhole will be available. All the buildings of the central mound are uncoverednow, presenting to the casual visitor the appearance ofa mere bewildering maze of brickwork, in which it is veryeasy to get lost, though all is clear enough to the expert eyesof the guide. Practically all that has been found is of thedate of Nebuchadnezzar ; for only one building aboveground is the work of his father, Nabopolassar, and themost systematic borings have found nothing below. At first sight it is strange that a city which was ancientin the days of Abraham should have no monuments olderthan those of a man who came very late in her history, andwas in fact a sort of Louis XIV of Chaldaea ; but there isan historical explanation of the fact. Babylon was utterlydestroyed by Sennacherib of Assyria at about the timeRome was in building, it being the intention of that rulerthat no man should dwell there more. This was his punish-
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<Xu c4 ID co u Bo H THE BUILDING OF BABYLON 353 ment for the series of rebellions against his authority,stirred up by that Merodach Baladan of Chaldaea, whoseambassadors make one transitory appearance in the Bookof Kings. The awe which the whole world felt at thisdestruction of the most ancient and venerable of cities isreflected in the words of Isaiah : Babylon is fallen, isfallen ; and all the graven images of her gods He hath brokenunto the ground. Of course the king could not attain his end. Men simplywould not abandon the Gate of the Gods, the Mother ofcivilization and culture for four thousand years ; andEsarhaddon, the successor of Sennacherib, had to give per-mission for the rebuilding. Still, nothing very magnificentwas attempted, and thus, when Chaldaea rose to empireunder Nebuchadnezzar, there was nothing ancient andvenerable in her capital. The King had a tabula rasa for hisgreat building schemes. And what schemes these were ! Really one cannot refusesympathy to the wor

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