Histories

Thus, then, this wall was built; the city is divided into two parts; for it is cut in half by a river named Euphrates [47.5,31.83] (river), AsiaEuphrates, a wide, deep, and swift river, flowing from Armenia (region (general)), AsiaArmenia and issuing into the Red Sea [42,15] (sea) Red Sea.

The angles of the wall, then, on either side are built quite down to the river; here they turn, and from here a fence of baked bricks runs along each bank of the stream.

The city itself is full of houses three and four stories high; and the ways that traverse it, those that run crosswise towards the river and the rest, are all straight.

Further, at the end of each road there was a gate in the riverside fence, one gate for each alley; these gates also were of bronze, and these too opened on the river.

These walls are the city's outer armor; within them there is another encircling wall, nearly as strong as the other, but narrower.

In the middle of one division of the city stands the royal palace, surrounded by a high and strong wall; and in the middle of the other is still to this day the sacred enclosure of Zeus Belus,[*](Bel or Baal, the greatest of Assyrian gods.) a square of four hundred and forty yards each way, with gates of bronze.