“Except the ruins of some large and lofty turrets,” says Mr. Morier, “like that of Babel or Belus, the cities of Babylon and Nineveh are so completely crumbled into dust, as to be wholly undistinguishable, but by a few inequalities of the surface on which they once stood. The humble tent of the Arab now occupies the spot formerly adorned with the palaces of kings; and his flocks procure but a scanty pittance of food, amidst fallen fragments of ancient magnificence. The banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, once so prolific, are now, for the most part, covered with impenetrable brush-wood; and the interior of the province, which was traversed and fertilised with innumerable canals, is destitute of either inhabitants or vegetation.” Among the ruins is a wall, and on the borders of that the peasants of the neighbourhood assemble every year, and sacrifice a sheep, with music and other festivities; a superstition far anterior to the religion they now possess. “One thing is sufficiently obvious,” says Mr. Rich, “to the most careless observer, and that is, the equality of age of all the vestiges discovered here. Whether they belonged to Nineveh or some other city, is another question; but that they are all of the same age and character does not admit of a doubt.” Mr. Rich took measurements of the mounds, that still exist among these ruins, and did not neglect to cut her name on the wall of what is called Thisbe’s Well. “Some traveller in after times,” says he, with an agreeable enthusiasm, “when her remembrance has long been swept away by the torrent of time, may wonder, on reading the name of Mary Rich[35], who the adventurous female was, who had visited the ruins of Nineveh. He will not be aware, that had her name been inscribed at every spot she had visited in the course of her weary pilgrimage, it would be found in places, compared with which, Mousul is the centre of civilisation.” From the circumstance that from all the mounds large stones, sometimes with bitumen adhering to them, are frequently dug out, Mr. Rich was inclined to believe, that but few bricks were used in the building of this once vast city. There is, however, not much certainty as to this, or in regard to what kind of architecture it was, for the most, or, indeed, any part constructed; for though its walls may be traced in a multitude of directions, nothing now remains beside a few mounds, some bricks, and large stones, hewn into a shape which evidently prove, that they once formed the houses or the temples of a city[36]. NO. VII.—NUMANTIA. This city stood near the river Douro; out of the ruins of which has arisen the town of Soria. According to Strabo, it was the capital of Celtiberia.