The city of Al-Hillah is one of the Iraqi cities whose urban history has been closely intertwined with the neighboring archaeological city of Babylon. For centuries, the ruins of Babylon served as a major source of building materials used in the construction of houses and other structures. This phenomenon was documented by numerous Arab and European travelers and historians, who also described the urban, social, and economic conditions of Al-Hillah. The earliest reference to this practice dates back to the Andalusian traveler **Ibn Jubayr**, who visited Al-Hillah during the sixth century AH (twelfth century CE). He praised the city's prosperity, the generosity of its inhabitants, and the strength and quality of its architecture. In the seventeenth century, the Portuguese traveler Godinho, who visited Al-Hillah in 1663, described the city as being surrounded by orchards, with most of its houses built of mud and roofed with tree trunks, while its streets were narrow and winding. Later, the Danish mathematician, astronomer, and traveler **Carsten Niebuhr**, who visited the region in **1765**, noted that the houses of Al-Hillah were predominantly constructed of mudbrick. He also recorded the continued transportation of Babylonian fired bricks from the ruins of Babylon to the city's neighborhoods, particularly the Al-Jami'ayn district, for use in construction. A few years later, the traveler Parsons, writing in 1774, observed that several mosques on the western side of Al-Hillah had walls constructed with reused Babylonian bricks. During the first half of the nineteenth century, the British traveler James Raymond Wellsted (1839) provided a detailed description of Al-Hillah, estimating its population at approximately twenty-five thousand inhabitants. He praised the hospitality and generosity of its people and noted that part of the building materials used in the city was obtained from the ancient ruins of Babylon. Among the most significant nineteenth-century accounts are those of the French painter and explorer **Eugène Flandin**, who visited the region in **1839**. He described the road between Baghdad and Al-Hillah as passing through sparsely cultivated land but highlighted the region's remarkable hospitality, reflected in tents erected to accommodate and feed travelers. He also noted that local inhabitants referred to one of Babylon's principal mounds as Al-Mujallibah ("the overturned mound") and observed that Babylonian bricks were continuously extracted from the site for use in modern buildings, transforming large portions of the ancient city into what resembled a quarry. In 1881, the French traveler and writer Jane Dieulafoy visited Al-Hillah and Babylon, providing a detailed account of the relationship between the modern city and the ancient ruins. She observed that many buildings in Al-Hillah had been constructed using bricks taken from Babylon, some of which still bore the cuneiform inscriptions of King Nebuchadnezzar II. She also noted the use of bitumen as a bonding material between the brick courses, a technique reminiscent of ancient Babylonian construction methods. At the same time, she expressed great admiration for the beauty of Al-Hillah and its lush orchards extending along both banks of the river. The American traveler John Peters, in his memoirs published in **1890**, recorded valuable information regarding the exploitation of Babylon's ruins during the late Ottoman period. He stated that the Ottoman authorities granted permits to merchants and building contractors allowing them to extract bricks from the ruins of Babylon. Brick removal was often carried out after archaeological structures had been partially excavated. Peters also recounted an incident in which local inhabitants used explosives to demolish an ancient structure, loaded the salvaged Babylonian bricks onto camels, and reused them in construction, all with the knowledge and approval of the Ottoman authorities. The testimonies of travelers and historians, spanning from the twelfth century to the late nineteenth century, demonstrate the continuity of the practice of reusing Babylonian bricks in the urban development of Al-Hillah. While this practice provided local inhabitants with a readily available source of construction material, it also contributed significantly to the depletion of large portions of the archaeological city of Babylon and the loss of many of its original architectural features. This phenomenon is clearly reflected in the archaeological landscape visible today. Visitors to Babylon will notice that the surviving mudbrick structures generally stand higher than those built of fired brick. This difference can be explained by the fact that fired bricks were durable and reusable, making them highly susceptible to repeated removal and reuse. Mudbricks, on the other hand, were fragile and easily disintegrated, rendering them unsuitable for reuse. Consequently, substantial portions of mudbrick architecture have remained in their original locations until the present day. The accuracy of these historical accounts is further supported by surviving physical evidence. Babylonian bricks can still be found in several construction projects dating to the Ottoman administration, most notably the Old Hindiya Barrage and the minaret built beside it. Likewise, a number of historic landmarks, including parts of Alexandria Khan and several traditional houses in Al-Hillah, continue to preserve Babylonian bricks as integral elements of their architectural fabric, along with many other historical structures. External Lecturer Assistant Lecturer Ammar Mohsen Aboud #AlMustaqbal_University_First_Among_Private_Universities_in_Iraq