Babylon
2. PROPHECY OF BABYLON - Isa. 13:19-22 (700 B.C.)
1. Never again be inhabited
2. Arab not pitch tent there, not make flocks to stay there
3. Wild beasts shall live in their palaces and houses
4. will make it pools of water
5. high walls to be brought down.
1. it will be a burnt mountain
2. stones will not be taken from for other buildings
4. its fountain would dry up.
Babylon had been a city for thousands of years. It was the capitol of the worlds leading nation. It was fortified with a 300 ft. high wall and 125 ft. thick. Outside the wall was a manmade canal surrounding it like a moat (extending some 64 miles inland from the river source). Further more it had been on the trade route thousands of years. It also contained the "hanging gardens", one of the 7 wonders of the world.
1. Due to lack of rain over several cent., the Euphrates River became saline. 100 A.D. this ruined the fertility of the land no drinking water there.
2. People deserted it till it became completely emptied.
3. 1,000 A.D., river changed its course, man made canal dried up.
4. Over the centuries, water level in the plain has risen, causing 1/4 of the city to be under water. Ency. Brit. Ii, p. 950
5. Because of soil deterioration (and local superstition) Arabs will not camp nor graze their sheep near the city. (Superstition comes from the fact that Alex. the Great tried to rebuild the city and died there)
6. Its walls and buildings have weathered, but the stones were NEVER taken and used for new buildings (as was customary). :
Note: Some building material and bricks were used, but the STONES never moved.
Cp. Austen R. Layard, "Discoveries Among The Ruins Of Nineveh And Babylon", (Harper Brothers, 1853, N.Y.)
Edward Chiera: "They wrote on clay, the Babylonian Tablets Speak Today", Edited by George C. Cameron, Rev. ed., Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1966.
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