Long before Babylon had overcome her rival Nineveh, she was famous for the extent and importance of her commerce. No position could have been more favorable than hers for carrying on a trade with all the regions of the known world. She stood upon a navigable stream that brought to her quays the produce of the temperate highlands of Armenia, approached in one part of its course within almost one hundred miles of the Mediterranean Sea, and emptied its waters into a gulf of the Indian Ocean. Parallel with this great river was one scarcely inferior in size and importance. The Tigris, too, came from the Armenian hills, flowed through the fertile districts of Assyria, and carried the varied produce to the Babylonian cities. Moderate skill and enterprise could scarcely fail to make Babylon, not only the emporium of the Eastern world, but the main link of commercial intercourse between the East and the West.
The inhabitants did not neglect the advantages bestowed upon them by nature. A system of navigable canals that may excite the admiration of even the modern engineer, connected together the Euphrates and Tigris, those great arteries of her commerce.
The vast trade that rendered Babylon the gathering-place of men from all parts of the known world, and supplied her with luxuries from the remotest clime, had the effect of corrupting the manners of her people, and producing that general profligacy and those effiminate customs which mainly contributed to her fall. The description given by Herodotus of the state of the population of the city when under the dominion of the Persian kings, is sufficient to explain the cause of her speedy decay and ultimate ruin. The account of the Greek historian fully tallies with the denunciation of the Hebrew prophets against the sin and wickedness of Babylon. Her inhabitants had gradually lost their warlike character. When the Persian broke into their city they were reveling in debauchery and lust; and when the Macedonian conqueror appeared at their gates, they received with indifference the yoke of a new master.
Such were the causes of the fall of Babylon. Her career was equally short and splendid; and although she has thus perished from the face of the earth, her ruins are still classic, indeed sacred, ground. The traveler visits, with no common emotion, those shapeless heaps, the scene of so many great and solemn events. In this plain, according to tradition, the primitive families of our race first found a resting place. Here Nebuchadnezzar boasted of the glories of his city, and was punished for his pride. To these deserted halls were brought the captives of Judæa. In them Daniel, undazzled by the glories around him, remained steadfast to his faith, rose to be a governor amongst his rulers, and prophesied the downfall of the kingdom. There was held Belshazzar's feast, and was seen the writing on the wall. Between those crumbling mounds Cyrus entered the neglected gates. Those massive ruins cover the spot where Alexander died.
Karnac and Baalbec.
The city of Thebes is, perhaps, the most astonishing work executed by the hand of man. Its ruins are the most unequivocal proof of the ancient civilization of Egypt, and of the high degree of power which the Egyptians had reached by the extent of their knowledge. Its origin is lost in the obscurity of time, it being coeval with the nation which first took possession of Egypt; and it is sufficient to give a proper idea of its antiquity to say that the building of Memphis was the first attempt made to rival the prosperity of Thebes.
Its extent was immense; it filled the whole valley which was permeated by the Nile. D'Anville and Denon state its circumference to have been thirty-six miles; its diameter not less than ten and a half. The number of its inhabitants was in proportion to these vast dimensions. Diodorus says that the houses were four and five stories high. Although Thebes had greatly fallen off from its ancient splendor at the time of Cambyses, yet it was the fury of this merciless conqueror that gave the last blow to its grandeur. This prince pillaged the temples, carried away all the ornaments of gold, silver, and ivory, which decorated its magnificent buildings, and ruined both its temples and its buildings. Before this unfortunate epoch, no city in the world could be compared with it in extent, splendor, and riches; and, according to the expression of Diodorus, the sun had never seen so magnificent a city.