Clustered at the foot of the palace mound, more especially on its eastern side, lay the ancient town, the foundation of the traditional Memnon who led an army to the defence of Troy.

The pure and sparkling water of the Choaspes--a drink fit for kings--flowed near, while around grew palms, konars, and lemon-trees, the plain beyond waving with green grass and golden corn.

It may be suspected that the Babylonian kings, who certainly maintained a palace at this place, and sent high officers of their court to "do their business" there, made it their occasional residence, exchanging, in summer and early autumn, the heats and swamps of Babylon for the comparatively dry and cool region at the base of the Lurish hills.

But, however, this may have been, at any rate Susa, long the capital of a kingdom little inferior to Babylon itself, must have been the first of the provincial cities, surpassing all the rest at once in size and in magnificence.

Among the other cities, Carchemish on the Upper Euphrates, Tyre upon the Syrian coast, and Ashdod on the borders of Egypt, held the highest place.