CITY OF THE DEAD

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 148, 12 March 1918, Page 6

CITY OF THE DEAD

: BELSHAZZAR'S BANQUETING ! HALL FOUND. In a recent dispatch from Mesopotamia Mr. Edmund Cancller says:— "The deadest of dead things in tins Mesopotamian waste is Babylon. Since March, 1399, from 200 to 250 workmen were employed daily, winter and summer, by Ge'rmnn archaeologists until tho war put'an end to tho work. Tho greater part of the city which the Germans have brought to light belongs to tho comparatively modern poriod of Nebuchadnezzar (601— 561 8.C.), but there are traces in the ruins left by the first Babylonian Kings (circa 2500 li.c). "Tho city walls of Nebuchadnezzar, a triple rampart, the outer and two inner walls including the wall of tho fosso at the foot, are from 17 to 22 metres thick. Two teams of tour horses abreast could pass each other on the outer barrier, and tho walls were towered. The archaeologists' have discovered what they arc convinced is Mshazzar's banqueting chamber and tho vaulted roofs which, they arguo with-much erudite reasoning, supported the hanging gardens."