18　A City of Wonders and Wickedness

The king of Babylon had beaten Nineveh. But he didn't stop with that.He wanted his Babylon to be as great as Nineveh had been.He went on conquering other lands to the left and right until Babylon,in its turn,became the leader and ruler of other countries.Was Babylon,also,in its turn,to fall,as Nineveh had fallen?

When at last the king of Babylon died,he left his vast empire to his son. Now,the king's son was not called John or James or Charles or anything simple like that.It was—Nebuchadnezzar,and I wonder if his father called him by that long name or shortened it to a nickname like Neb,for instance,or Chad,or perhaps Nezzar.This is the way Nebuchadnezzar wrote his name,for he used cuneiform writing.How would you like to write your name in such an unusual way?

Nebuchadnezzar set to work and made the city of Babylon the largest,the most magnificent,and the most wonderful city in the world.He made the city in the shape of a square and surrounded it with a wall fifty times as high as a man—fifty times—whew！—and so broad that a chariot could be driven along the top,and in this wall he made one