p. 10 | The Latest from Babylon

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 29, 1908

The Latest from Babylon

DR. F. DELITZSCH has just edited a report of the explorations carried out by an exploration society on the ruins of ancient Babylon. In this document it is shown that the result placed before us for the first time the real area of the city in the prosperous days of the New Babylonian empire, from B. C. 606-538. There are four great mounds within the group of ruins, one of these, Babil, being about one hundred feet high. Another contains the ruins of the great temple of Bel-Merodach, under which are immense remains not yet fully excavated. The third mound, fully explored, contains two immense palaces, one built by Nabopolassar, the other by Nebuchadnezzar. In the latter is the grand audience-hall where Nebuchadnezzar sat and received homage on his conquest of Jerusalem. What a wonderful discovery is this! It is conjectured that in this very hall Belshazzar's feast was held, and that on its plaster-covered walls the terrible message of doom was seen. Here Cyrus the Conqueror was undoubtedly enthroned in June, B. C. 538, and perhaps on this very spot Alexander the Great held the fatal revels after his overthrow of the empire of the East.—The Homiletic Review.