oSince then:
nBabylon has been
deserted, partly by conquest, partly by a shift in
the River Euphrates, leaving its site waterless. The Arabs avoid the place
as haunted; the soil is too poor for
grazing. The natives use the site
for bricks, but burn the stones to make
lime.
nNineveh, too, was
long abandoned, though recently the suburbs of
Mosul have grown out to reach it.
The name of its largest mound means
Òmany sheep.Ó