In the first place a course of
bricks was laid, then a mat made of canes squared like the bricks, and
daubed with earth instead of lime mortar; and these mats still remain so
strong that it is wonderful considering their great antiquity. I have
gone all round it without being able to discover any place where there
had been a door or entrance, and in my opinion it may be about a mile in
circumference or rather less. Contrary to all other things, which appear
small at a distance and become larger the nearer they are approached,
this tower appears largest when seen from afar, and seems less as you
come nearer. This may be accounted for, as the tower stands in a very
large plain, and with its surrounding ruins forms the only perceptible
object; so that from a distance the tower and the mountains formed of
its ruins make a greater shew than it is found to be on coming near.
SECTION III.
_Of Basora._
From Babylon I embarked in one of those small vessels which ply upon the
Tigris between Babylon and Basora, which are built after the manner of
foists or galliots, having a _speron_[122] and a covered poop. They use
no pumps, being so well daubed with pitch as effectually to exclude the
water. This pitch they have from a great plain near the city of _Heit_
on the Euphrates, two days journey from Babylon. This plain full of
pitch is marvellous to behold, and a thing almost incredible, as from a
hole in the earth the pitch is continually thrown into the air with a
constant great smoke; and being hot it falls as it were sprinkled all
over the plain, in such abundance that the plain is always full of
pitch[123]. The Moors and Arabs of the neighbourhood allege that this
hole is the mouth of Hell; and in truth it is a very memorable object
From this native pitch or bitumen the whole people of that country
derive great benefit, as with it they pay or serve their barks, which
they call _Daneck_ and _Saffin_.
[Footnote 122: In imitation of the original translator Hickocke and
Hakluyt, this word must be left untranslated and unexplained. - E.]
[Footnote 123: This account of the hole which discharges pitch or native
bitumen mixed with water is most true; the water and pitch running into
the valley _or island_, where the pitch remains, and the water runs into
the Euphrates, when it occasions the water for a long way to have a
brackish taste with the smell of pitch and brimstone. - Hakl.]
When the river Tigris is well replenished with water, the passage from
Babylon or Bagdat to Basora may be made in eight or nine days, less or
more according to circumstances; we were fourteen or fifteen days,
because the water was low, and when the waters are at the lowest it
requires eighteen days.
