Being
Ruined On Every Side, It Has Formed A Great Mountain, Yet A Considerable
Part Of The Tower Is Still Standing, Compassed And Almost Covered Up By
These Ruins.
It has been built of square bricks dried in the sun, and
constructed in the following manner.
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.
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