Babylon

1693. A geographical dictionary representing the present and ancient names by Edmund Bohun.

Babylon, one of the most famous Cities of the antient World, celebrated both in Sacred and Profane Story. It is seated upon the Euphrates, and was the Capital of Chaldea, about 42 Miles from Bagdet to the South East, in 79. d. of Long▪ and 35 of Nor. Lat. //Paris Meridian was used in the book Generally believed to have been built by Nimrod, the Grand-child of Noah, soon after the Deluge; and to have been a continuation of Babel, so called, because the Lord did there confound the Language of all the Earth, Gen. 11. 9. This City was antiently incompassed with Walls of Brick, which made a Circuit of 385 Stadia's, or 48 English Miles. They were so broad at the top, that two Chariots might meet, and pass, without any hindrance; and they are said to be 100 Cubits high; so that this was one of the seven Wonders that amazed the old World. This City was the Capital of the Assyrian Empire; and tho Nabonassar ruin'd that Empire, yet he forsook it not; but his Son Nebuchadnezzar very much increased and inlarged it, as appears Dan. 4. 30. After this, it was taken by Cyrus the Persian. Anno Mund. 3516. before the Birth of our Saviour 537 years; and tho it changed its Master, yet it kept much of its antient Greatness under the Persian Empire: Seleucus Nicanor, one of the Successors of Alexander the Great, (who dyed here,) building Seleucia upon the Tigris, at about 40 Miles distance from it, as Strabo observes, it became thereby deprived of its Wealth, its Honour, and Inhabitants; whence Pausanias could say, that it had nothing in his time but its Wall: in the days of S. Jerom it was only a Park, and in aftertimes it became an Habitation for Scorpions and Serpents, so that no Man could safely pass through it. See Bochart. Geogr. Sacr. lib. 4. c. 15. It is very hard now to know assuredly so much as where it stood. For tho Bachad or Bagdat is often call'd by the same name, and divers have therefore been induced to accept it for the same place, yet that this is a great mistake, see Bach••.