Such a stranger, passing within the Ishtar Gate, would have been struck with wonder at the broad Procession Street,[113] which ran its long course straight through the city from north to south, with the great temples ranged on either hand. Its foundation of burnt brick covered with bitumen is still preserved, upon which, to the south of the gateway, rested a pavement of massive flags, the centre of fine hard limestone, the sides of red breccia veined with white. In inscriptions upon the edges of these paving slabs, formerly hidden by their asphalt mortar, Nebuchadnezzar boasts that he paved the street of Babylon for the procession of the great lord Marduk, to whom he prays for eternal life.[114] The slabs that are still in place are polished with hard use, but, unlike the pavements of Pompeii, show no ruts or indentations such as we might have expected from the chariots of the later period. It is possible that, in view of its sacred character, the use of the road was restricted to foot passengers and beasts of burden, except when the king and his retinue passed along it through the city. And in any case, not counting chariots of war and state, there was probably very little wheeled traffic in Babylonia at any time. When clear of the citadel the road descends by a gradual slope to the level of the plain, and preserving the same breadth, passes to the right of the temple dedicated to Ishtar of Akkad.[115] As it continues southward it is flanked at a little distance on the east by the streets of private houses, whose foundations have been uncovered in the Merkes mound;[116] and on the west side it runs close under the huge peribolos of E-temen-anki, the Tower of Babylon.[117] As far as the main gate of E-temen-anki[118] its foundation is laid in burnt-brick, over which was an upper paving completely formed of breccia. The inscription upon the slabs corresponds to that on the breccia paving-stones opposite the citadel; but they have evidently been re-used from an earlier pavement of Sennacherib, whose name some of them bear upon the underside. This earlier pavement of Babylon's Sacred Way must have been laid by that monarch before he reversed his conciliatory policy toward the southern kingdom. At the south-east corner of the peribolos the road turns at a right angle and running between the peribolos and E-sagila, the great temple of the city-god, passes through a gate in the river-wall built by Nabonidus, and so over the Euphrates bridge before turning southward again in the direction of Borsippa.[119] This branch road between the Tower of Babylon and E-sagila[120] is undoubtedly the continuation of the procession-street. For not only was it the way of approach to Marduk's temple, but its course has been definitely traced by excavation. But there can be no doubt that the upper portion of the road, running north and south through the city, was continued in a straight line from the point where the Sacred Way branched off. This