The windows were crowded with eager, curious women, who threw flowers before the approaching train, or poured sweet perfumes from above as they passed by.

The pavement was thickly strewn with myrtle and palm branches, trees of different kinds had been placed before the house-doors, carpets and gay cloths hung from the windows, garlands of flowers were wreathed from house to house, fragrant odors of incense and sandal-wood perfumed the air, and the way was lined with thousands of gaping Babylonians dressed in white linen shirts, gaily-colored woollen petticoats and short cloaks, and carrying long staves headed with pomegranates, birds, or roses, of gold or silver.
The streets through which the procession moved were broad and straight, the houses on either side, built of brick, tall and handsome.

Towering above every thing else, and visible from all points, rose the gigantic temple of Bel.

Its colossal staircase, like a huge serpent, wound round and round the ever-diminishing series of stories composing the tower, until it reached the summit crowned by the sanctuary itself.
[This temple of Bel, which many consider may have been the tower of Babel of Genesis XI., is mentioned by Herodotus I.181.182.

183.
Diodorus II.8.9.