It is indeed inconceivable that the main sanctuary of the place, where the kings constantly offered their worship, should have been nine or ten miles from the palace! The distance between the Amran mound and Babil, which is about two miles, is quite as great as probability will allow us to believe existed between the old residence of the kings and the sacred shrine to which they were in the constant habit of resorting.
Still there remain as objections to the identification of the great temple with the Babil mound the two arguments already noticed.

The Babil mound has no appearance of stages such as the Birs presents, nor has it even a pyramidical shape.

It is a huge platform with a nearly level top, and sinks, rather than rises, in the centre.

What has become, it is asked, of the seven upper stages of the great Belus tower, if this ruin represents it?
Whither have they vanished?
How is it that in crumbling down they have not left something like a heap towards the middle?
To this it may be replied that the destruction of the Belus tower has not been the mere work of the elements--it was violently broken down either by Xerxes, or by some later king, who may have completely removed all the upper stages.

Again, it has served as a quarry to the hunters after bricks for more than twenty centuries; so that it is only surprising that it still retains so much of its original shape.