The histories of Herodotus;

70 HERODOTUS—BOOK I, CLIO [179-182
bricks, they first built up the sides of the moat, and afterward
the wall itself in the same manner; and on the top of the
wall, at the edges, they built dwellings of one story, fronting
each other, and they left a space between these dwellings sufficient
for turning a chariot with four horses. In the circumference
of the wall there are a hundred gates, all of brass,
as also are the posts and lintels. Eight days' journey from
Babylon stands another city, called Is, on a small river of the
same name, which discharges its stream into the Euphrates;
now, this river brings down with its water many lumps of
bitumen, from whence the bitumen used in the wall of Babylon
was brought. In this manner Babylon was encompassed
with a wall. And the city consists of two divisions, for a river
called the Euphrates separates it in the middle: this river,
which is broad, deep, and rapid, flows from Armenia, and falls
into the Red Sea. The wall, therefore, on either bank has an
elbow carried down to the river ; from thence along the curvatures
of each bank of the river runs a wall of baked bricks.
The city itself, which is full of houses three and four stories
high, is cut up into straight streets ; all the others as well as
the transverse ones that lead to the river. At the end of each
street a little gate is formed in the wall along the river-side,
in number equal to the streets ; and they are all made of
brass, and lead down to the edge of the river. This outer
wall is the chief defence, but another wall runs round within,
not much inferior to the other in strength, though narrower.
In the middle of each division of the city fortified buildings
were erected ; in one, the royal palace, with a spacious and
strong inclosure, brazen gated ; and in the other, the precinct
of Jupiter Belus, which in my time was still in existence,
a square building of two stades on every side. In the
midst of this precinct is built a solid tower of one stade both
in length and breadth, and on this tower rose another, and
another upon that, to the number of eight. And an ascent
to these is outside, running spirally round all the towers.
About the middle of the ascent there is a landing-place and
seats to rest on, on which those who go up sit down and rest
themselves; and in the uppermost tower stands a spacious
temple, and in this temple is placed, handsomely furnished,
a large couch, and by its side a table of gold. No statue has
been erected within it, nor does any mortal pass the night
there, except only a native woman, chosen by the god out
of the whole nation, as the Chaldseans, who are priests of this
deity, say. These same priests assert, though I can not credit
what they say, that the god himself comes to the temple and