The high-road followed the course of the Euphrates, passing through
luxuriant fields of wheat, barley and sesame yielding fruit two, and
sometimes even three, hundred-fold. Slender date-palms covered with
golden fruit were scattered in every direction over the fields, which
were thoroughly irrigated by means of canals and ditches.

It was winter, but the sun shone warm and bright from a cloudless sky.
The mighty river swarmed with craft of all sizes, either transporting the
products of Upper Armenia to the plains of Mesopotamia, or the wares of
Greece and Asia Minor from Thapsakus to Babylon.

[Thapsakus--An important commercial town on the Euphrates, and the
point of observation from which Eratosthenes took his measurements
of the earth.]

Pumps and water-wheels poured refreshing streams over the thirsty land,
and pretty villages ornamented the shores of the river. Indeed every
object gave evidence that our caravan was approaching the metropolis of
a carefully governed and civilized state.

Nitetis and her retinue now halted at a long brick house, roofed with
asphalte, and surrounded by a grove of plane-trees.

[Asphalte--Nearly all authorities, ancient as well as modern, report
that bitumen, which is still plentifully found in the neighborhood
of Babylon, was used by the Babylonians as mortar. See, besides the
accounts of ancient writers, W. Vaux, 'Nineveh and Persepolis'.
Burnt bitumen was used by Assyrians for cement in building.]