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The city is divided into two portions by the river which runs through
the midst of it. This river is the Euphrates, a broad, deep, swift
stream, which rises in Armenia, and empties itself into the
Erythraean sea. The city wall is brought down on both sides to the
edge of the stream: thence, from the corners of the wall, there is
carried along each bank of the river a fence of burnt bricks. The
houses are mostly three and four stories high; the streets all run in
straight lines, not only those parallel to the river, but also the
cross streets which lead down to the water-side. At the river end of
these cross streets are low gates in the fence that skirts the stream,
which are, like the great gates in the outer wall, of brass, and open
on the water.
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