There are likewise
a number of rings and posts for the cattle in the court, where they
can be in the open air during the night.
These chans are adapted for whole caravans, and will contain as many
as 500 travellers, together with animals and baggage; they are
erected by the government, but more frequently by wealthy people,
who hope by such means to procure a place in heaven. Ten or twelve
soldiers are appointed to each chan as a guard. The gates are
closed in the evening. Travellers do not pay anything for staying
at these places.
Some Arabian families generally live outside the chans, or even in
them, and they supply the place of host, and furnish travellers with
camel's milk, bread, coffee, and sometimes, also, with camel's or
goat's flesh. I found the camel's milk rather disagreeable, but the
flesh is so good that I thought it had been cow-beef, and was
greatly surprised when my guide told me that it was not.
When travellers are furnished with a pasha's firman (letter of
recommendation), they can procure one or more mounted soldiers (all
the soldiers at the chans have horses) to accompany them through
dangerous places, and at times of disturbances. I had such a
firman, and made use of it at night.
In the afternoon we approached the town of Hilla, which now occupies
a part of the space where Babylon formerly stood. Beautiful woods
of date-trees indicated from afar the inhabited country, but
intercepted our view of the town.
Four miles from Hilla we turned off the road to the right, and
shortly found ourselves between enormous mounds of fallen walls and
heaps of bricks. The Arabs call these ruins Mujellibe. The largest
of these mounds of bricks and rubbish is 2,110 feet in
circumference, and 141 feet in height.
Babylon, as is known, was one of the greatest cities of the world.
With respect to its founder there are various opinions. Some say
Ninus, others Belus, others Semiramis, etc. It is said that, at the
building of the city (about 2,000 years before the birth of Christ),
two million of workmen, and all the architects and artificers of the
then enormous Syrian empire, were employed. The city walls are
described as having been 150 feet high, and twenty feet thick. The
city was defended by 250 towers; it was closed by a hundred brazen
gates, and its circumference was sixty miles. It was separated into
two parts by the Euphrates. On each bank stood a beautiful palace,
and the two were united by an artistic bridge, and even a tunnel was
constructed by the Queen Semiramis. But the greatest curiosities
were the temples of Belus and the hanging gardens. The tower of the
temple was ornamented with three colossal figures, made of pure
gold, and representing gods.
