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261 whose Bibliothca historica is known to have been compiled from verified reliable sources, “scholars called Chaldaeans, who have gained a great reputation in astrology and who are accustomed to predict future events by a method based on age-old observations,” warned Alexander that he would die in Babylon, but “could escape the danger if he re-erected the tomb of Belus which had been demolished by the Persians” (Book XVII, 112.1). Entering the city anyway, Alexander had neither the time nor the manpower to do the repairs, and indeed died in Babylon in 323 B.c.£. The first century B.Cc.E. historian-geographer Strabo, who was born in a Greek town in Asia Minor, described Babylon in his famed Geography—its great size, the “hanging gar- den” that was one of the Seven Wonders of the World, its high buildings constructed of baked bricks, and so on, and said this in section 16.1.5 (emphasis added): Here too is the tomb of Belus, now in ruins, having been demolished by Xerxes, as it is said. It was a quadrangular pyramid of baked bricks, not only being a stadium in height, but also having sides a stadium in length. Alexander intended to repair this pyramid; but it would have been a large task and would have required a long time, so that he could not finish what he had attempted. According to this source, the tomb of Bel/Marduk was destroyed by Xerxes, who was the Persian king (and ruler of Babylon) from 486 to 465 B.c.£. Strabo, in Book 5, had earlier stated that Belus was lying in a coffin when Xerxes decided to destroy the temple, in 482 B.c.z. Accordingly, Marduk died not long before (Germany’s leading Assyriolo- gists, meeting at the University of Jena in 1922, concluded that Marduk was already in his tomb in 484 B.c.£.). Marduk’s son Nabu also vanished from the pages of history about the same time. And thus came to an end, an almost human end, the saga of the gods who shaped history on planet Earth. The End of Days