1.] [Illustration: PLATE XII.] Below the Babil mound, which stands isolated from the rest of the ruins, are two principal masses--the more northern known to the Arabs as EL KASR, "the Palace," and the more southern as "the mound of Amran," from the tomb of a reputed prophet Amran-ibn-Ali, which crowns its summit.
The Kasr mound is an oblong square, about 700 yards long by 600 broad, with the sides facing the cardinal points.

[PLATE XII., Fig.

2.] Its height above the plain is 70 feet.

Its longer direction is from north to south.

As far as it has been penetrated, it consists mainly of rubbish-loose bricks, tiles, and fragments of stone.