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