YU have read in fairy talesf a land where cakes and candy and sugarplums grwn trees， where everything yu want t eatr t play with can be had just by picking it. Well， lng， lng ag peple used t think there had been really such a cuntry， and where d yu suppse they said it was？ Smewhere near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers-thse rivers with the strange names I asked yu t learn-and they called this spt the Gardenf Eden. We d nt knw exactly where it was， fr there is n such place nw quite as wnderful as the Gardenf Eden was suppsed t be.
The ancient Mediterranean wrld ( 古代地中海世界 )Egypt was a landfne river， the Nile. The landf the Tw Rivers had several names.
Let us suppse we are flyingver the cuntry in an airplane and lking dwn at the land between these tw rivers. It is called Mesptamia， which is tw Greek wrds simply meaning between the rivers.
See the landver there by the upper Tigris. It is called Assyria.
See the land near where the rivers jin eachther. That is called Babylnia. See the land near where they empty. That is called Chaldea.
And seever there is Munt Ararat， where it is suppsed Nah"s Ark restedafter the fld.
Here are a ltf new names. A yung friendf mine had a trainf ty cars. He had nticed that the carsn which he had ridden had names， and s he gave his ty cars names als. He called them：
ASSYRIAMESPTAMIA BABYLNIAARARAT
CHALDEAEUPHRATES
Babylnia was a very rich cuntry， fr the tw rivers brught dwn and drpped great quantitiesf earth just as the Nile did in Egypt， and this made very rich sil. Wheat， frm which we make bread， is called the stafff life. It is the mst valuablef all fds which grw. It is suppsed that wheat first grew in Babylnia. Dates in that partf the wrld are almst as imprtant a fd as wheat. Dates， t， grw there very plentifully. Nw， yu may think dates are smething t be eaten almst like candy， but in Babylnia dates tk the placefatmeal. In the rivers there were quantitiesf gd fish， and as fishing was just fun， yu see that the peple wh lived in Babylnia-the Babylnians， as they were called-had plentyf gd fd. Nne had any mney in thse days； peple had pigs and sheep and gats， and a man was rich wh had muchf these gds. Earlyn， if a man wanted t buyr sell， he had t buyr sell by trading smething he had fr smething he wanted.
Smewhere in Babylnia the peple built a great twer called the Twerf Babel， which yu have prbably heard abut. It was mre like a muntain than a twer. They builtther twers， t. Sme say the Twerf Babel and twers like it were built s that the peple might have a high place t which they culd climb in casef anther fld.thers give a different reasn. They say that the peple wh built these twers came t Babylnia frm farther nrth where there were muntains. In this nrthern land they had always placed their altarsn thetpf a muntain， t be clse t heaven. S when they mved t a flat cuntry like Mesptamia and Babylnia， where there were nt muntains， they built muntains inrder t have a high place fr the altarn tp. T reach the tpf these muntainsr twers， they made， insteadf a staircasen the inside， a slanting radway that wund arund theutside in smewhat the way a rad winds arund a muntain.
There was hardly any stne either inr near Babylnia as there was in Egypt， and s the Babylnians built their buildingsf bricks， which were madef mud frmed int blcks and dried in the sun. In the cursef time， bricksf this srt crumble and turn back int dust again， just as mud pies that yu might make wuld d. This is the reasn why all that is leftf the twers and thether buildings that were put up s lng ag are nw simply hillsf clay int which the brick has turned.
The Egyptians wrten papyrusr carved their histry in stne， but the Babylnians had neither papyrus nr stne. All they had were bricks. S they wrten bricks befre they were dried， while they were still sft clay. This writing was made by punching marks int the clay with the endf a stick. It was called cuneifrm， which means wedge-shaped， fr it lked like little grupsf wedge-shaped marks， like chicken-tracks， made in the mud. I have seen bys" writing that lked mre like cuneifrm than it did like English.
As the Babylnians watched their flcks by day and night， they watched als the sun and the mn and the stars mving acrss the sky. S they came t knw a great deal abut these heavenly bdies.
Did yu ever see the mn in the daytime？h， yes， yu can.
Well， everynce in a great while the mn as it mves acrss the sky gets in frntf the sun and shutsut its light-just as， if yu shuld put a plate in frntf an electric lamp， the plate wuld blck the light frm the lamp. It may be ten"clck in the mrning and brad daylight， when suddenly the sun is cvered up by the mn， and it becmes night and the stars shineut， and chickens， thinking it is night， g t rst. But in a few mments the mn passes by and the sun shinesutnce again. This is called an eclipsef the sun.
Nw yu may never have seen an eclipsef the sun， but sme day yu may. If yu d， I hpe yu d nt think the way ignrant peple always have： they think that smething dreadful is ging t happen-the endf the wrld， perhaps， just because they have never seen such a strange sight befre and d nt knw that it is a thing that happens regularly and that n harm cmes frm it.
Babylnians watching eclipse ( 观察日食的巴比伦人 )Well， nearly twenty-three hundred years befre Christ， in 2300 B.C.， the Babylnians tld befre-hand just when there was ging t be an eclipsef the sun. They had watched the mn mving acrss the sky and they had figuredut hw lng it wuld be befre it wuld catch up with the sun and crss directlyver it. Yu see hw much theld Babylnians knew abut such things. Men wh study the stars andther heavenly bdies are called astrnmers， and the Babylnians， therefre， were famus astrnmers. The Babylnians wrshiped these wnderful heavenly bdies the sun， mn， and stars-that they knew s well.
The first kingf Babylnia whm we knw much abut-and that much is very little-was Sargn I， wh may have lived abut the same time that the pyramids were built in Egypt.
Abut 1770 B.C. Babylnia had a king knwn far and wide fr the laws he made. His name was Hammurabi， and we still have the cdef laws he made thugh we n lngerbey them. They were carved int a stne in cuneifrm， and we have the stne. Sargn and Hammurabi are strange names like nne"s name yu ever heard befre， yet they are real namesf real kings wh ruledver real peple.
【中文阅读】
你在神话故事中读到过这样一个地方，那儿的树上长着蛋糕、甜品和糖果，你 想吃的、玩的任何东西只要伸手就可以从树上摘到。是的，很久以前，人们认为， 真有这样一个国家，你猜他们说的是哪个国家呢？靠近底格里斯河和幼发拉底河的 某个地方--这两条河的名字挺奇怪，我曾要求你们要记住--他们把这个地方叫 做"伊甸园"。我们无法确切知道它到底在哪里，因为现在没有任何地方像过去传说 的"伊甸园"那般奇妙。
埃及这块陆地只有一条河流，那就是尼罗河。两河流域则分出许多块陆地，分 别拥有不同的名字。
想象一下我们乘飞机飞过那个国家，俯瞰那两条河之间的那块陆地。那个地方 叫美索不达米亚，是由两个希腊单词合在一起的名字，意思是"在河流之间"。
看看底格里斯河上游的那块陆地。它叫亚述。 看看两条河流交汇处附近的那块陆地。它叫巴比伦。 看看两条河流入海口处的那块陆地。它叫迦勒底。 再看看河流那边的阿勒山，人们猜想大洪水过后诺亚方舟就停在那儿。 有这么多新名字。我的一个小朋友有一组玩具车。他注意到自己乘坐过的汽车身上都有名字，所以他就给自己的玩具车也起了名字，他叫它们：
亚述美索不达米亚 巴比伦阿勒山
迦勒底幼发拉底
巴比伦是个富裕的国家，因为底格里斯河和幼发拉底河带来大量泥土，这些 泥土沉积下来就变成了肥沃的土壤，就像尼罗河在埃及所发挥的作用一样。我们 用 来 做 面 包 的 小 麦 被 称 作" 生 活 主 粮 "， 它 是 所 有 粮 食 作 物 中 最 有 价 值 的 一 种。 据推测小麦最早生长在巴比伦。在那块土地上，椰枣和小麦几乎一样是重要的食 物，因为巴比伦也盛产椰枣。你可能认为，椰枣相当于蜜饯那样的零食，可是在 巴比伦，它可是像现在燕麦片一样重要的粮食。两河流域也盛产肥鱼，但是捕鱼 只是休闲娱乐，由此可见居住在巴比伦的人--当时人称巴比伦人--有多么丰 富的食物。那时候，没人有钱，但是他们有猪、绵羊和山羊，谁养的家畜多谁就 是富人。在早期，如果一个人想要买什么或卖什么，就得用自己的东西来换他想 要的东西。
在巴比伦有个地方，人们造了一座宏伟的塔，叫"巴别塔"，这座塔你可能听 说过，与其说它是一座塔，不如说它像一座山。他们也建了其他的塔。有些人说， 之所以建巴别塔这类高塔是为了当洪水再来的时候，人们可以爬到一个高的地方。 另一些人则提出了不同的看法。他们说，建造高塔的人是从遥远的北方山区来到巴比伦的。在北方，他们经常把祭坛建在山顶上，为了更接近天堂，所以，当他们 迁移到像美索不达米亚和巴比伦这样的平原地带，看不到山的时候，为了能有一个 可以放置祭坛的高地，他们就建起了一座座"山"。他们没在里面建楼梯登上山顶 或塔顶，而是在塔外修建了一条向上倾斜的路，这条路盘旋而上，有点像现在的盘 山路。
和埃及不同，巴比伦国内和附近都没什么石头，所以，巴比伦人用砖来盖房子。 这种砖是用泥做成的块状，再在太阳底下晒干而制成的。随着时间的推移，这种砖 就会碎裂，重新变成了尘土，你如果用泥土捏成饼，这些饼也会是同样的结果。这 就是为什么很久以前建造的这些塔和其他的建筑，如今只剩下一堆堆由砖块变成的 土山。
古埃及人将他们的历史写在纸草纸上或刻在石头上，但是巴比伦人既没有纸草 纸，也没有石头，他们有的只是一块块砖。所以，他们在砖还没被晒干的时候就在 软泥上面刻下符号。这种符号是用树枝的尖端在黏土上用力刻画出来的，叫"楔形 文字"，之所以叫楔形文字，因为它们是楔子形状，一个个楔形符号排列在一起就 像泥巴上的鸡爪印。我见过有些小男孩写的字，看起来不像英语字母倒更像是楔形 文字。
巴比伦人日夜看护着自己畜群的同时，也观察到太阳、月亮和星星在天空中的 运行，所以，他们逐渐对这些天体了解得越来越多。
你在白天看到过月亮吗？ 噢，没错，你可能看到过。
是啊，每隔一段时间就有这么一次，月亮在天空中运行恰好到了太阳的前面， 遮住了阳光--就好比你在电灯前放一个盘子，盘子挡住灯光那样。时间可能是上 午十点，大白天，突然，太阳被月亮遮住了，白天变成了黑夜，群星闪耀，鸡以为 天黑了，都进了窝。可是，片刻之后，月亮一移开，太阳又光芒四射了，这种现象 叫"日食"。
你可能还没见过日食，但总有一天你会见到的。如果你见到了，我希望你不要 像有些愚昧无知的人那样认为可怕的事情就要发生--也许世界末日要降临。他们 这样认为是因为以前从未见过这种奇怪的现象，不知道这是定期发生的一种自然现 象，并没有什么灾害。
再接着说巴比伦人吧，大约在基督诞生前 2300 年，也就是公元前 2300 年左右， 巴比伦人就能够预测日食发生的时间。他们观察月亮在天空中的运行，推算出再过 多少天月亮会赶上太阳，遮住太阳。由此可见，古巴比伦人对这类事情有多了解吧。 研究星星和其他天体的人叫"天文学家"，因此，巴比伦人是了不起的天文学家，他 们崇拜太阳、月亮和星星这些神奇的天体--对它们非常了解。
巴比伦第一任国王是萨尔贡，他大约生活在埃及人建造金字塔的那个时代。要 说我们对这位国王有多了解，也就仅此而已。
公元前 1700 年左右，巴比伦有一位国王因制定一部法典而远近闻名。他的名字 叫汉谟拉比，现在我们仍然保存着这部法典，不过我们已经不必再遵从它了。法典是用楔形文字刻在石头上的，这块石头我们还保存着。萨尔贡和汉谟拉比是很奇怪 的名字，你从未听说过吧，但是它们是真实国王的真名，他们统治下的人民也是真 正生活在那个时代的人。
公元前 1770 年