Herodotus’ description of Babylon (1)

Text
Herodotus 1.180-181:
The city is divided into two parts; for it is cut in half by a river named Euphrates, a wide, deep, and swift river, flowing from Armenia and issuing into the Red Sea. The ends of the wall, then, on either side are built quite down to the river; here they turn, and hence a fence of baked bricks runs along each bank of the stream. The city itself is full of houses three and four stories high; and the ways which traverse it - those that run crosswise towards the river, and the rest - are all straight. Further, at the end of each road there was a gate in the riverside fence, one gate for each alley; these gates also were of bronze, and these too opened on the river. These walls are the city’s outer armour; within them there is another encircling wall, well-nigh as strong as the other, but narrower.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Herodotus 1.180-181

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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