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Otago Daily Times, Issue 21195, 28 November 1930, Page 14

There have been various attempts, by comparing its area with the area of modern cities, to estimate the population of Babylon. On the lowest calculation it would be found, supposing it to have borne any considerable resemblance to a, European city, to have had a population of 5,000,000 —a supposition to which all but insuperable obstacles are opposed. The map of Asiatic Turkey shows that the extent of country around Babylon available for agricultural purposes must have been quite inadequate to supply the necessary demands for anything like such an immense population. Perhaps, on the whole (says a recent writer), one may estimate the population at from 1,000,000 to 1,200,000. This supposition derives support from the fact that Selucia, with a population of 600,000, is stated by Strabo and Pliny to have been about half the size of Babylon in the days of her greatest glory. .