'Diary of a Tour in the Persian Gulf and in Turkish Arabia December 1906, by Lieutenant-Colonel Malleson Assistant Quarter Master General, Intelligence Branch, Division of the Chief of the Staff.' [‎18r] (35/46)

29
The Temple of Ashtareth.
to use brick that mars all the ruins of Meso
potamia. Assyria is even worse off, since
the ruins of the once splendid capital of
Nineveh are made merely of sun-dried
brick, whilst at Babylon they used burnt
bricks. Both places have been preserved
through all these centuries by the kindly
sand of the desert or the silt of the big
rivers, which have buried them up. But for
that they would long ago have perished, or
the bricks would have been transported to
other places by the local Arabs. Nineveh
was wisely reburied after exploration by
Sir H. Bayard. Babylon, or rather El Kasr,
remains wonderfully well preserved to
day. Especially is this the case with the
great temple of Ashtareth, scene of unname-
able orgies, the moulded brick work on the
walls of which stands out fresh and un
defaced to-day in spite of the 2,500 years
which have elapsed since it was made.
The spoils of the palace are, however,
disappointing. They are practically con
fined to inscriptions, rude vessels, and
rough images, all in clay. The inscriptions
tell much of the history of the Babylonian
Empire, which lasted for so short a time.
But there are few if any real treasures of
antiquity, such as are found at other
places, e.g., in Egypt or in Greece. The
reason of this is partly because Nebuchad
nezzar and his subjects were a compara
tively rude people, not well skilled in the
arts, and partly because the Persians,
who made a summary ending of the Baby
lonian Empire during the time of Belsh
azzar, took away with them as the spoils
of victory practically everything which was
worth having. The same Babylonian
treasures are now being excavated at Susa,
the ancient Persian Capital, and it is some
what mortifying to the German savants
who are working at Babylon to know that
the choicest remains of Nebuchadnezzar’s
empire are being unearthed by French
archaeologists at Susa only some few
hundred miles away.
So much for Babylon, the true history of
which has yet to be written. No doubt the
German savants will be able to throw much
fresh light on the subject, but up to now
they have published nothing. What is cer
tain, however, is that Babylon in its prime
had good claims to be considered the first
city in the world, exceeding even its Egyp
tian contemporary Thebes in grandeur.
The sole remaining thing I will mention is
the curious breed of Babylonian cat, a
sandy creature with a most decided kink,
far more so than is the case with the bull
dog, in its tail. The kink, in fact, is almost
a knot, and the appearance of the animal is