Histories

Such was this work; and she built an embankment along either shore of the river, marvellous for its greatness and height.

Then a long way above Babylon [44.4,32.55] (deserted settlement), Babil, Iraq, AsiaBabylon she dug the reservoir of a lake, a little way off from the river, always digging deep enough to find water, and making the circumference a distance of fifty two miles; what was dug out of this hole, she used to embank either edge of the river;

and when she had it all dug, she brought stones and made a quay all around the lake.

Her purpose in making the river wind and turning the hole into marsh was this: that the current might be slower because of the many windings that broke its force, and that the passages to Babylon [44.4,32.55] (deserted settlement), Babil, Iraq, AsiaBabylon might be crooked, and that right after them should come also the long circuit of the lake.

All this work was done in that part of the country where the passes are and the shortest road from Media, so that the Medes might not mix with her people and learn of her affairs.

So she made the deep river her protection; and this work led to another which she added to it. Her city was divided into two parts by the river that flowed through the middle. In the days of the former rulers, when one wanted to go from one part to the other, one had to cross in a boat; and this, I suppose, was a nuisance. But the queen also provided for this; she made another monument of her reign out of this same work when the digging of the basin of the lake was done.