Chaldea

Sources from old books

1676. A most exact and accurate map of the whole world by Donald Lupton.

XXIII. Chaldea,

E. Persia, W. Arabia the desert, N. Mesopotamia, the Seat (its thought) of Paradise, so fruitfull, that it yieldeth three hundred fold increase; three harvests: the first place of Astronomy, Astrology, Divination and Idolatry, had first Babel that was confounded: Secondly Babylor, formerly one of the worlds wonder, as many furlongs round, as there are dayes in the year, (viz.) 365, 50 Cubits high, and so broad, that Carts might meet upon them; finished in one year by an 100000 workmen on both sides Euphrates, famous for pensile Gardens; and for that the Enemy had entred one end of it, three dayes before the other heard of them;

1. in whose stead now stands Bagdad, a place of great wealth and traffick, about seven miles round, maintained now by the trade of Aleppo by Water, and by Land, in Carvans by Camels, for whose passages publick spirited men have built houses of Receits on the Roads, called Caravane Rowes, or Canes; here they correspond by Pigeons, which they teach by carrying them with them in a Cage to coast any Country.
2. Ctesephon.
3. Sipparum, and its great Trench.
4. Apamia.
5. Balsora, the port to Babylon at the fall of Euphrates to Sinus Persicus, where the riches of Arabia, Persia, and some parts of India, are landed and carried to Babylon, and so by water to Aleppo.