Last among the Pyramids that I will notice here, though the first in date, is the celebrated tower of Babel, or, as it was afterwards called, the temple of Belus. This temple was square, measuring at its base 660 feet on each side; and consisted of eight successive layers or towers, formed of huge unburnt bricks, each layer 75 feet high, and each smaller than the next below. It was thus altogether 600 in height, and had on the summit a chapel for the golden statue of their god. According to Diodorus Siculus, the gold of this statue, and the decorations of the temple, were equal in value to ten millions of dollars; while the worth of the utensils employed, and the treasure deposited here, amounted to an equal sum. We have thus, throughout Hindoostan, on the banks of the Euphrates, through Egypt, in the remote region of Mexico, and among the Pacific islands, structures in shape exactly alike, and often of stupendous magnitude. For an effect so general we must find a cause as extensive, and it must be one operating with powerful effect. It appears to me that we are supplied with this in the hints given by the picture writing of Mexico. After the confusion of languages at the tower of Babel, the stricken and confounded families of the plain of Shinar, as they were gradually scattered over different, and often far distant regions, carried with them, each, not only a deep impression of the event, but also a feeling of awe connected with the edifice where had been such a wonderful display of supernatural power. And they afterwards adopted this structure, as the model for temples for the worship of the mysterious divinities that their superstitious fears gradually wrought out for them, the god of fire, the god of the sun, or the god of the palpable but invisible air. We have here a case sufficiently extensive in its operation, and also sufficiently powerful. When looking at the huge structures in Egypt, I can hardly imagine any other cause than that of religion to be able to produce such a stupendous effect. Only one of the Pyramids of Ghizeh is truncated, or adapted for a chapel on its summit; that of Cephrenes might have had its altar in the huge stone enclosure already noticed as directly adjoining it on the east; but it is probable that in this land of mystery, the solemnities, whatever they were, were performed chiefly in the hidden chambers of the Pyramids, to which the priests had access by subterranean passages.