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And here I may not omit to tell the use to which the mould dug out of
the great moat was turned, nor the manner wherein the wall was
wrought. As fast as they dug the moat the soil which they got from the
cutting was made into bricks, and when a sufficient number were
completed they baked the bricks in kilns. Then they set to building,
and began with bricking the borders of the moat, after which they
proceeded to construct the wall itself, using throughout for their
cement hot bitumen, and interposing a layer of wattled reeds at every
thirtieth course of the bricks. On the top, along the edges of the
wall, they constructed buildings of a single chamber facing one
another, leaving between them room for a four-horse chariot to turn.
In the circuit of the wall are a hundred gates, all of brass, with
brazen lintels and side-posts. The bitumen used in the work was
brought to Babylon from the Is, a small stream which flows into the
Euphrates at the point where the city of the same name stands, eight
days' journey from Babylon. Lumps of bitumen are found in great
abundance in this river.
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