Note 3 — Chapter II
Reading edition
He states that "the heavenly fire which struck the tower split it to its very foundation," a description which is thoroughly applicable to the present appearance of Borsippa's temple-tower at El-Birs; see the photograph reproduced on Plate II. Other travellers, such as Anthony Shirley in 1599 or 1600, appear to have made the same identification. A few years later Pietro della Valle was nearer the mark in identifying the tower with the mound Babil, from which he carried away to Home some of Nebuchadnezzar's stamped bricks, probably the first collection of Babylonian antiquities to reach Europe (cf. Rogers, op. cit., p. 98).