of ruins, partaking of the same characters as those which
appertain to the preceding cities. That on the right hank
(the presumed Kerkisyah) is crowned by the modern town
Abu Serai, (father of palaces;) whilst that on the opposite or
left bank may, from its name, Kalneh or Chalanne, and the
more modern Charchemish, be the fourth city of Nimrud.1
L im it s o f B a b y lo n ia .
The remains just mentioned indicate that the ancient kingdom
of Babylonia comprehended a narrow tract along the
river Euphrates, extending from the neighbourhood of Erech,
or from about the modern town of Sheikh el Shuyukh, to
Babel; a distance of about 154 miles in'a direction westward
of north, and continuing from thence 287 miles further, in
the same direction, to Kalneh, on the Khabur. The kingdom
extended eastward till it joined Assyria, including Akad,
and two other cities no less remarkable. One of them bears
the name of El Kush,2 and the other is the supposed site
of the antediluvian Sippara,8 which is within the Median
wall, near the southern extremity.
The greater part of what was called Mesopotamia in latter
times constituted, therefore, the territory of ancient Babel,
the Aram-naharaim, or Syria between the rivers, of the
scriptures.4 The same tract also bore the name of Padan
Aram,5 or Champagne Syria; both of which designations
agree with the description given of the country by Strabo.6
The ancient inhabitants of this part of Asia were called Syrians,
as some suppose, because it formed part of the government of
Syria Proper; but it is more probable that the appellation
was derived from the Assyrians, who, by placing themselves
in the plains near Nineveh after the dispersion, were the
1 Benjamin of Tudela writes Chalne, or Dakia, at the beginning of Senaar
or Mesopotamia.—See Benoit, p. 29. 4to. Paris, 1573.
8 Extensive ruins, about 11 miles E.S.E. of Felujah.
3 Siferah of the Arabs.— Lieut. Lynch.
* Gen. xxiv. 1 0 ; Deut. xxiii. 4.
5 Gen. xxviii. 2. 8 Lib. XV., p. 746.
earliest occupiers of that line of country; from whence, at a
later period, when more powerful as well as more numerous,
they sent colonies into Upper Mesopotamia. Strabo says that
Semiramis and Ninus were Syrians; and he calls Nineveh
itself the metropolis of Syria.1
A n c ie n t A s sy r ia .
Athur (from Asshur, Shem’s son) was originally of small
■ extent, and formed the second part of the kingdom usurped
by the giant warrior2 who built, or rather restored, the three
cities, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen, besides the capital,
Nineveh.
The ruins of the latter city are sufficiently known to the
general reader, from the descriptions of Rich, Ainsworth, and
earlier travellers. They are in Assyria Proper, on the left
bank of the Tigris, opposite Mosul, and the natives still call
them by the original name.
Of the three former cities, the brief notices which immediately
follow comprehend all that the researches of travellers
have been able to discover. On the right bank of the
Euphrates, at the north-western extremity of the plain of
Shinar, and three and a half miles S.W. of the town of
Mayadin, are extensive ruins around a castle, still bearing the
name of Rehoboth.3
In several old maps, we find Calah marked at some
distance eastward of the river Tigris ; and Major Rawlinson
appears to have identified the ruins of Holwan, situated near
the river Diyalah, and about 130 miles N.E. of Baghdad,
with those of this ancient city.4
There are also fair grounds for supposing that the extensive
ruins which lie between Nineveh and Calah, or Holwan,5
near the village of Derawish, 22f miles S.S.E. of Mosul, and
1 Geography, lib. II. p. 138, 139 ; also lib. XVI.
8 Gen. x. 11, 12.
8 See “ Expedition.”
4 See Vol. IX. p. 35, of tbe Royal Geographical Journal; and sequel of
Major Rawlinson’s Notes. 5 See Vol. I l l,