In the period from 2000 to 1000 B.C., Babylonia under Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar, and Marduknadinakh, was already the foremost state of Hither Asia in power, science, and skill in art. Her civilisation had developed without external assistance. If the first foundations were borrowed, and not laid by the Babylonians, they certainly were not due to the Egyptians. The religious views of the Babylonians and the Egyptians rest on an entirely different basis. In Egypt the heavens were carefully observed; but the Chaldæans arrived at a different division of the heavens, of the year, and month, and day, and the results of their astronomy were far clearer and more exact. In Egypt, weights and measures were regulated by the priests; the Chaldæans established a much more accurate and consistent system, which prevailed far beyond the borders of Babylonia. The Egyptians reached the highest point that could be reached by the art of building in stone; but the buildings of the Chaldæans in brick are unsurpassed in size, strength, and height by any nation or period. To what antiquity the hydraulic works of the Chaldæans reached we do not know (the canal of Hammurabi has been mentioned above); but we find that in size and variety they were not behind those of Egypt. Their sculpture cannot be compared with the Egyptian in artistic finish; but the few fragments which remain exhibit a style which, while thoroughly independent, is more vigorous and complete, and shows a greater freedom of conception than the Egyptian.