Museum of Antiquity Part 28

17. Double edged ax.

18. Spear.

19. Quiver filled with arrows and elaborately sculptured.

20. Bow.

21.} 22.} Daggers and knife in one case.

23.} 24. Helmet.

25. Round shield such as was borne by foot soldiers.

26. Breastplate of a knight of high degree.

27. Parasol found at Nimroud. (Now in British Museum.) 28. Ear-ring of gold.

29.} 30.} 31.} Bracelets of gold.

32.} 33.{ 34.{ Diadems.

35. Wall painting representing lions.]

Most of the sculptures discovered in this hall and group of chambers have been deposited in the British Museum.

For the more recent collection of sculptures which have been brought to light, we are indebted to Mr. Hormuzd Ra.s.sam, a native of Mosul, and a friend and colleague of Layard; and to Mr. William Kennet Loftus, the agent of the a.s.syrian excavation fund. In 1852, Mr. Ra.s.sam was appointed by the Trustees of the British Museum to take charge of the excavations at Nineveh. For more than a year his researches were nearly fruitless, when, at length, just as his appointment was about to terminate, he turned again to a previously-abandoned trench in the north side of the mound, and was almost immediately rewarded by the discovery of numerous chambers and pa.s.sages, covered with a variety of bas-reliefs in an excellent state of preservation, having suffered less injury from fire than those of the other palaces. In one room was a lion hunt, in a continuous series of twenty-three slabs, with but one interval. The other slabs represented exteriors of palaces, gardens, battles, sieges, processions, etc., the whole forming the decorations of what must have been a splendid palace.

Subsequently, in 1854, at the instance of Sir Henry Rawlinson, Mr.

Loftus and his coadjutor, Mr. Boutcher, transferred their operations from South Babylonia to Nineveh. At first Mr. Loftus' excavations were unsuccessful, but about the beginning of August he discovered the remains of a building on a level twenty feet lower than the palace that Mr. Ra.s.sam was exploring, and which proved to be a lower terrace of the same building, even more highly elaborated and in better preservation than those previously discovered in the ruins. At the entrance of an ascending pa.s.sage there was also found a "ma.s.s of solid masonry--apparently the pier of an arch--the springing of which is formed by projecting horizontal layers of limestone."

Mr. Loftus, in his Report of the 9th of October, observes: "The excavations carried on at the western angle of the North Palace, Kouyunjik, continue to reveal many interesting and important facts, and to determine several points which were previously doubtful.

"1. The existence of an outer bas.e.m.e.nt wall of roughly cut stone blocks, supporting a mud wall, upon which white plaster still remains, and from which painted bricks have fallen. 2. At the corner of the palace, and at a considerable distance from the princ.i.p.al chambers, is an entrance hall, with column bases, precisely as we see them represented in the sculptures. 3. Above this entrance hall and its adjoining chambers, there was formerly another story, the first upper rooms yet discovered in a.s.syria. This, with its sculptured slabs, has fallen into the rooms below. 4. The various sculptures here disinterred are the works of four, if not five, different artists, whose styles are distinctly visible. It is evident that this portion of the edifice has been willfully destroyed, the woodwork burned, and the slabs broken to pieces. The faces of all the princ.i.p.al figures are slightly injured by blows of the ax."

This highly interesting series of bas-reliefs, which has now been placed in a lower chamber in the British Museum, consequently represents the siege and capture of Lachish, as described in the Second Book of Kings, and in the inscriptions on the human-headed bulls. Sennacherib himself is seen seated on his throne, and receiving the submission of the inhabitants of the city, whilst he had sent his generals to demand the tribute of payment from Hezekiah. The defenders of the castle walls and the prisoners tortured and crouching at the conqueror's feet are Jews, and the sculptor has evidently endeavored to indicate the peculiar physiognomy of the race, and the dress of the people.

The value of this discovery can scarcely be overrated. Whilst we have thus the representations of an event recorded in the Old Testament, of which consequently these bas-reliefs furnish a most interesting and important ill.u.s.tration, they serve to a certain extent to test the accuracy of the interpretation of the cuneiform inscriptions, and to remove any doubt that might still exist as to the identification of the King who built the palace on the mound of Kouyunjik with the Sennacherib of Scripture. Had these bas-reliefs been the only remains dug up from the ruins of Nineveh, the labor of the explorer would have been amply rewarded, and the sum expended by the nation on the excavations more than justified. They furnish, together with the inscriptions which they ill.u.s.trate, and which are also now deposited in the national collection, the most valuable cotemporary historical record possessed by any museum in the world. They may be said to be the actual ma.n.u.script, caused to be written or carved by the princ.i.p.al actor in the events which it relates. Who would have believed it probable or possible, before these discoveries were made, that beneath the heap of earth and rubbish which marked the site of Nineveh, there would be found the history of the wars between Hezekiah and Sennacherib, written at the very time when they took place by Sennacherib himself and confirming even in minute details the Biblical record? He who would have ventured to predict such a discovery would have been treated as a dreamer or an impostor. Had it been known that such a monument really existed, what sum would have been considered too great for the precious record?

A few remarks are necessary on the architecture and architectural decorations, external and internal of the a.s.syrian palaces. The inscriptions on their walls, especially on those of Kouyunjik and Khorsabad, appear to contain important and even minute details not only as to their general plan and mode of construction, but even as to the materials employed for their different parts, and for the objects of sculpture and ornaments placed in them. (Capt. Jones calculated that the mound of Kouyunjik contains 14,500,000 tons of earth, and that its construction would have taken 10,000 men for twelve years.) This fact furnishes another remarkable a.n.a.logy between the records of the Jewish and a.s.syrian kings. To the history of their monarchs and of their nation, the Hebrew chroniclers have added a full account of the building and ornaments of the temple and palaces of Solomon. In both cases, from the use of technical words, we can scarcely hope to understand, with any degree of certainty, all the details. It is impossible to comprehend, by the help of the description alone, the plan or appearance of the temple of Solomon. This arises not only from our being unacquainted with the exact meaning of various Hebrew architectural terms, but also from the difficulty experienced even in ordinary cases, of restoring from mere description an edifice of any kind. In the a.s.syrian inscriptions we labor, of course, under still greater disadvantages. The language in which they were written is as yet but very imperfectly known, and although we may be able to explain with some confidence the general meaning of the historical paragraphs, yet when we come to technical words relating to architecture, even with a very intimate acquaintance with the a.s.syrian tongue, we could scarcely hope to ascertain their precise signification. On the other hand, the materials, and the general plan of the a.s.syrian palaces are still preserved, whilst of the great edifices of the Jews, not a fragment of masonry, nor the smallest traces, are probably left to guide us. But, as Mr. Fergusson has shown, the architecture of the one people may be ill.u.s.trated by that of the other. With the help of the sacred books, and of the ruins of the palaces of Nineveh, together with those of cotemporary and after remains, as well as from customs still existing in the East, we may, to a certain extent, ascertain the princ.i.p.al architectural features of the buildings of both nations.

Before suggesting a general restoration of the royal edifices of Nineveh, we shall endeavor to point out the a.n.a.logies which appear to exist between their actual remains and what is recorded of the temple and palaces of Solomon. In the first place, as Sennacherib in his inscriptions declares himself to have done, the Jewish king sent the bearers of burdens and the hewers into the mountains to bring great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundations, which were probably artificial platforms, resembling the a.s.syrian mounds, though constructed of more solid materials. We have the remains of such a terrace or stage of stone masonry, perhaps built by King Solomon himself, at Baalbec. The enormous size of some of the hewn stones in that structure, and of those still remaining in the quarries, some of which are more than sixty feet long, has excited the wonder of modern travelers. The dimensions of the temple of Jerusalem, threescore cubits long, twenty broad, and thirty high, were much smaller than those of the great edifices explored in a.s.syria.

Solomon's own palace, however, appears to have been considerably larger, and to have more nearly approached in its proportions those of the kings of Nineveh, for it was one hundred cubits long, fifty broad and thirty high. "The porch before the temple," twenty cubits by ten, may have been a propylaeum, such as was discovered at Khorsabad in front of the palace. The chambers, with the exception of the oracle, were exceedingly small, the largest being only seven cubits broad, "for without, _in the wall_ of the house, he made numerous rests round about, that _the beams_ should not be fastened in the walls of the house." The words in italics are inserted in our version to make good the sense, and may consequently not convey the exact meaning, which may be, that these apartments were thus narrow in order that the beams might be supported without the use of pillars, a reason already suggested for the narrowness of the greater number of chambers in the a.s.syrian palaces. These smaller rooms appear to have been built round a large central hall called the oracle, the whole arrangement thus corresponding with the courts, halls, and surrounding rooms at Nimroud, Khorsabad, and Kouyunjik. The oracle was twenty cubits square, smaller far in dimensions than the Nineveh halls; but it was twenty cubits _high_--an important fact, ill.u.s.trative of a.s.syrian architecture, for as the building itself was thirty cubits in height the oracle must not only have been much loftier than the adjoining chambers, but must have had an upper structure of ten cubits. Within it were the two cherubim of olive wood ten cubits high, with wings each five cubits long--"and he carved all the house around with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees, and open flowers, within and without." The cherubim have been described by Biblical commentators as mythic figures, uniting the human head with the body of a lion, or an ox, and the wings of an eagle. If for the palm trees we subst.i.tute the sacred trees of the Nineveh sculptures, and for the open flowers the a.s.syrian tulip-shaped ornament--objects most probably very nearly resembling each other--we find that the oracle of the temple was almost identical, in the general form of its ornaments, with some of the chambers of Nimroud and Khorsabad. In the a.s.syrian halls, too, the winged human-headed bulls were on the side of the wall, and their wings, like those of the cherubim, "touched one another in the midst of the house." The dimensions of these figures were in some cases nearly the same in the Jewish and a.s.syrian temples, namely, fifteen feet square. The doors were also carved with cherubim and palm trees, and open flowers; and thus, with the other parts of the building, corresponded with those of the a.s.syrian palaces. On the walls at Nineveh the only addition appears to have been the introduction of the human form and the image of the king, which were an abomination to the Jews. The pomegranates and lilies of Solomon's temple must have been nearly identical with the usual a.s.syrian ornament, in which, and particularly at Khorsabad, the promegranate frequently takes the place of the tulip and the cune.

But the description given by Josephus of the interior of one of Solomon's houses still more completely corresponds with and ill.u.s.trates the chambers in the palaces of Nineveh. "Solomon built some of these (houses) with stones of ten cubits, and wainscoted the walls with other stones that were sawed, and were of great value, such as were dug out of the bowels of the earth, for ornaments of temples,"

etc. The arrangement of the curious workmanship of these stones was in three rows; but the fourth was pre-eminent for the beauty of its sculpture, for on it were represented trees and all sorts of plants, with the shadows caused by their branches and the leaves that hung down from them. These trees and plants covered the stone that was beneath them, and their leaves were wrought so wonderfully thin and subtle that they appeared almost in motion; but the rest of the wall, up to the roof, was plastered over, and, as it were, wrought over with various colors and pictures.

To complete the a.n.a.logy between the two edifices, it would appear that Solomon was seven years building his temple, and Sennacherib about the same time in erecting his great palace at Kouyunjik.

The ceiling, roof, and beams of the Jewish temple were of cedar wood.

The discoveries of the ruins at Nimroud show that the same precious wood was used in a.s.syrian edifices; and the king of Nineveh, as we learn from the inscriptions, sent men, precisely as Solomon had done, to cut it in Mount Lebanon. Fir was also employed in the Jewish buildings, and probably in those of a.s.syria.

In order to understand the proposed restoration of the palace at Kouyunjik from the existing remains, the reader must refer to the cut, on page 427, of the excavated ruins. It will be remembered that the building does not face the cardinal points of the compa.s.s. We will, however, a.s.sume, for convenience sake that it stands due north and south. To the south, therefore, it immediately overlooked the Tigris; and on that side rose one of the princ.i.p.al facades. The edifice must have stood on the very edge of the platform, the foot of which was at that time washed by the river, which had five ma.s.sive staircases leading to the river. Although from the fact of there having been a grand entrance to the palace on the east side, it is highly probable that some such approach once existed on the west side, yet no remains whatever of it have been discovered. The northern facade, like the southern, was formed by five pairs of human-headed bulls, and numerous colossal figures, forming three distinct gateways.

The princ.i.p.al approach to the palace appears, however, to have been on the eastern side, where the great bulls bearing the annals of Sennacherib were discovered. In the cut we have been able, by the a.s.sistance of Mr. Fergusson, to give a restoration of this magnificent palace and entrances. Inclined ways, or broad flights of steps, appear to have led up to it from the foot of the platform, and the remains of them, consisting of huge squared stones, are still in the ravines, which are but ancient ascents, deepened by the winter rains of centuries. From this grand entrance direct access could be had to all the princ.i.p.al halls and chambers in the palace; that on the western face, as appears from the ruins, only opened into a set of eight rooms.

The chambers. .h.i.therto explored appear to have been grouped round three great courts or halls. It must be borne in mind, however, that the palace extends considerably to the northeast of the grand entrance, and that there may have been another hall, and similar dependent chambers in that part of the edifice. Only a part of the palace has been hitherto excavated, and we are not, consequently, in possession of a perfect ground-plan of it.

The general arrangement of the chambers at Kouyunjik is similar to that at Khorsabad, though the extent of the building is very much greater. The Khorsabad mound falls gradually to the level of the plain, and there are the remains of a succession of broad terraces or stages. Parts of the palace, such as the propylaea, were actually beneath the platform, and stood at some distance from it in the midst of the walled enclosure. At Kouyunjik, however, the whole of the royal edifice, with its dependent buildings, appears to have stood on the summit of the artificial mound, whose lofty perpendicular sides could only have been accessible by steps, or inclined ways. No propylaea, or other edifices connected with the palace, have as yet been discovered below the platform.

The inscriptions, it is said, refer to four distinct parts of the palace, three of which, inhabited by the women, seem subsequently to have been reduced to one. It is not clear whether they were all on the ground-floor, or whether they formed different stories. Mr. Fergusson, in his ingenious work on the restoration of the palaces of Nineveh, in which he has, with great learning and research, fully examined the subject of the architecture of the a.s.syrians and ancient Persians, endeavors to divide the Khorsabad palace, after the manner of modern Mussulman houses, into the Salamlik or apartments of the men, and the Harem, or those of the women. The division he suggests must, of course, depend upon a.n.a.logy and conjecture; but it may, we think, be accepted as highly probable, until fuller and more accurate translations of the inscriptions than can yet be made may furnish us with some positive data on the subject. In the ruins of Kouyunjik there is nothing, as far as we are aware, to mark the distinction between the male and female apartments. Of a temple no remains have as yet been found at Kouyunjik, nor is there any high conical mound as at Nimroud and Khorsabad.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIEW OF A HALL.

(_Of which 71 were discovered in the Palace._)]

In all the a.s.syrian edifices. .h.i.therto explored we find the same general plan. On the four sides of the great courts or halls are two or three narrow parallel chambers opening one into the other. Most of them have doorways at each end leading into smaller rooms, which have no other outlet. It seems highly probable that this uniform plan was adopted with reference to the peculiar architectural arrangements required by the building, and we agree with Mr. Fergusson in attributing it to the mode resorted to for lighting the apartments.

Early excavators expressed a belief that the chambers received light from the top. Although this may have been the case in some instances, yet recent discoveries now prove that the a.s.syrian palaces had more than one story. Such being the case, it is evident that other means must have been adopted to admit light to the inner rooms on the ground-floor. Mr. Fergusson's suggestion, that the upper part of the halls and princ.i.p.al chambers was formed by a row of pillars supporting the ceiling and admitting a free circulation of light and air, appears to us to meet, to a certain extent, the difficulty. It has, moreover, been borne out by subsequent discoveries, and by the representation of a large building, apparently a palace, on one side of the bas-reliefs from Kouyunjik.

Although the larger halls may have been lighted in this manner, yet the inner chambers must have remained in almost entire darkness. And it is not improbable that such was the case, to judge from modern Eastern houses, in which the rooms are purposely kept dark to mitigate the great heat. The sculptures and decorations in them could then only be properly seen by torchlight. The great courts were probably open to the sky, like the courts of the modern houses of Mosul, whose walls are also adorned with sculptured alabaster. The roofs of the large halls must have been supported by pillars of wood or brick work. It may be conjectured that there were two or three stories of chambers opening into them, either by columns or by windows. Such appears to have been the case in Solomon's temple; for Josephus tells us that the great inner sanctuary was surrounded by small rooms, "over these rooms were other rooms, and others above them, equal both in their measure and numbers, and these reached to a height equal to the _lower part_ of the house, for the upper had no buildings about it." We have also a similar arrangement of chambers in the modern houses of Persia, in which a lofty central hall, called the Iwan, of the entire height of the building, has small rooms in two or three separate stories opening by windows into it, whilst the inner chambers have no windows at all, and only receive light through the door. Sometimes these side chambers open into a center court, as we have suggested may have been the case in the Nineveh palaces, and then a projecting roof of woodwork protects the carved and painted walls from injury by the weather.

Curtains and awnings were no doubt suspended above the windows and entrances in the a.s.syrian palaces to ward off the rays of the sun.

Although the remains of pillars have hitherto been discovered in the a.s.syrian ruins, we now think it highly probable, as suggested by Mr.

Fergusson, that they were used to support the roof. The modern Yezidi house, in the Sinjar, is a good ill.u.s.tration not only of this mode of supporting the ceiling, but of the manner in which light may have been admitted into the side chambers. It is curious, however, that no stone pedestals, upon which wooden columns may have rested, have been found in the ruins; nor have marks of them been found on the pavement. We can scarcely account for the entire absence of all such traces.

However, unless some support of this kind were resorted to, it is impossible that the larger halls at Kouyunjik could have been covered in. The great hall, or house, as it is rendered in the Bible, of the forest of Lebanon was thirty cubits high, upon four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams upon the pillars. The a.s.syrian kings, as we have seen, cut wood in the same forests as King Solomon; and probably used it for the same purpose, namely, for pillars, beams and ceilings.

The dimensions of this hall, 100 cubits (about 150 feet) by 50 cubits (75 feet), very much resemble those of the center halls of the palaces of Nineveh. "The porch of pillars" was fifty cubits in length; equal, therefore, to the breadth of the hall, of which, we presume, it was a kind of inclosed s.p.a.ce at the upper end, whilst "the porch for the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment * * * *

covered with cedar wood from one side of the floor to the other," was probably a raised place within it, corresponding with a similar platform where the host and guests of honor are seated in a modern Eastern house. Supposing the three parts of the building to have been arranged as we have suggested, we should have an exact counterpart of them in the hall of audience of the Persian palaces. The upper part of the magnificent hall in which we have frequently seen the governor of Isfahan, was divided from the lower part by columns, and his throne was a raised place of carved headwork adorned with rich stuffs, ivory, and other precious materials. Suppliants and attendants stood outside the line of pillars, and the officers of the court within. Such also may have been the interior arrangements of the great halls in the a.s.syrian edifices.

We have already described the interior decorations of the a.s.syrian palaces, and have little more to add upon the subject. The walls of Kouyunjik were more elaborately decorated than those of Nimroud and Khorsabad. Almost every chamber explored there, and they amounted to about seventy, was paneled with alabaster slabs carved with numerous figures and with the minutest details. Each room appears to have been dedicated to some particular event, and in each, apparently, was the image of the king himself. In fact, the walls recorded in sculpture what the inscriptions did in writing--the great deeds of Sennacherib in peace as well as in war. It will be remarked that, whilst in other a.s.syrian edifices the king is frequently represented taking an active part in war, slaying his enemies, and fighting beneath a besieged city, Sennacherib is never represented at Kouyunjik otherwise than in an att.i.tude of triumph, in his chariot or on his throne, receiving the captives and the spoil. Nor is he ever seen torturing his prisoners, or putting them to death with his own hand.

There were chambers, however, in the palace of Sennacherib, as well as in those at Nimroud and Khorsabad, whose walls were simply coated with plaster, like the walls of Belshazzar's palace at Babylon. Some were probably richly ornamented in color with figures of men and animals, as well as with elegant designs; or others may have been paneled with cedar wainscoting, as the chambers in the temple and palaces of Solomon, and in the royal edifices of Babylon. Gilding, too, appears to have been extensively used in decoration, and some of the great sphinxes may have been overlaid with gold, like the cherubim in Solomon's temple. The cut on page 445 gives a beautiful representation of the interior of the palaces. It is taken from the halls of the palace of Sennacherib.

At Kouyunjik, the pavement slabs were not inscribed as at Nimroud; but those between the winged bulls, at some of the entrances, were carved with an elaborate and very elegant pattern. The doors were probably of wood, gilt, and adorned with precious materials, like the gates of the temple of Jerusalem, and their hinges appear to have turned in stone sockets, some of which were found in the ruins. To ward off the glare of an Eastern sun, hangings or curtains, of gay colors and of rich materials, were probably suspended to the pillars supporting the ceiling, or to wooden poles raised for the purpose, as in the palaces of Babylon and Shushan.

Layard's researches have satisfied him that a very considerable period elapsed between the earliest and latest buildings discovered among the mounds of Nimroud. We incline to this opinion, but differ from the surmise that the ruins of Nimroud and the site of Nineveh itself are identical. The dimensions of Nineveh, as given by Diodorus Siculus, were 150 stadia on the two longest sides of the quadrangle, and 90 on the opposite; the square being 480 stadia, 60 miles; or, according to some, 74 miles. Layard thinks, that by taking the four great mounds of Nimroud, Kouyunjik, Khorsabad and Karamles, as the corners of a square, the four sides will correspond pretty accurately with the 60 miles of the geographer, and the three days' journey of the prophet Jonah.

The parallelogram, or line of boundary, being thus completed, we have now to ascertain how far it accords with the localities of the researches; and we find that it not only comprehends the princ.i.p.al mounds which have already been examined, but many others, in which ruins are either actually, or almost certainly, known to exist.

Another important object of remark connected with this subject, is the thickness of the wall surrounding the palace of Khorsabad, which Botta states to be fifteen metres, _i.e._, forty-eight feet, nine inches, a very close approximation to the width of the wall of the city itself, which was "so broad as that three chariots might be driven upon it abreast." This is about half the thickness of the wall of Babylon, upon which "six chariots could be driven together," and which Herodotus tells were eighty-seven feet broad, or nearly double that of Khorsabad. The extraordinary dimensions of the walls of cities is supported by these remains at Khorsabad. The Median wall, still existing, in part nearly entire, and which crosses obliquely the plain of Mesopotamia from the Tigris to the banks of the Euphrates, a distance of forty miles, is another example. The great wall of China, also, of like antiquity, we are told, "traverses high mountains, deep valleys, and, by means of arches, wide rivers, extending from the province of Shen Si to w.a.n.ghay, or the Yellow Sea, a distance of 1,500 miles. In some places, to protect exposed pa.s.sages, it is double and treble. The foundation and corner stones are of granite, but the princ.i.p.al part is of blue bricks, cemented with pure white mortar. At distances of about 200 paces are distributed square towers or strong bulwarks." In less ancient times, the Roman walls in our own country supply additional proof of the universality of this mode of enclosing a district or guarding a boundary before society was established on a firm basis. It may be objected against the foregoing speculations on the boundary of Nineveh, that the river runs within the walls instead of on the outside. In reply, we submit that when the walls were destroyed, as described by the historian, the flooded river would force for itself another channel, which in process of time would become more and more devious from the obstructions offered by the acc.u.mulated ruins, until it eventually took the channel in which it now flows.

Babylon was the most beautiful and the richest city in the world. Even to our age, it stands as a marvel. It was built about 3,000 years ago, but did not reach the summit of its magnificence until about 570 years Before Christ, when Nebuchadnezzar lavished almost an endless amount of wealth upon it.

Its magnitude was 480 furlongs, or sixty miles, in compa.s.s. It was built in an exact square of fifteen miles on each side, and was surrounded by a brick wall eighty-seven feet thick and 350 feet high, on which were 250 towers, or, according to some writers, 316. The top of the wall was wide enough to allow six chariots to drive abreast.

The materials for building the wall were dug from a vast ditch or moat, which was also walled up with brickwork and then filled with water from the River Euphrates. This moat was just outside of the walls, and surrounded the city as another strong defence.

The city had 100 bra.s.s gates, one at the end of each of its fifty streets. The streets were 150 feet wide and ran at right angles through the city, thus forming 676 great squares. Herodotus says besides this there was yet another wall which ran around within, not much inferior to the other, yet narrower, and the city was divided into two equal parts by the River Euphrates, over which was a bridge, and at each end of the bridge was a palace. These palaces had communication with each other by a subterranean pa.s.sage.

To prevent the city from suffering from an overflow of the river during the summer months, immense embankments were raised on either side, with ca.n.a.ls to turn the flood waters of the Tigris. On the western side of the city an artificial lake was excavated forty miles square, or 160 miles in circ.u.mference, and dug out, according to Megasthenes, seventy-five feet deep, into which the river was turned when any repairs were to be made, or for a surplus of water, in case the river should be cut off from them.

Near to the old palace stood the Tower of Babel. This prodigious pile consisted of eight towers, each seventy-five feet high, rising one upon another, with an outside winding staircase to its summit, which, with its chapel on the top, reached a height of 660 feet. On this summit is where the chapel of Belus was erected, which contained probably the most expensive furniture of any in the world. One golden image forty feet high was valued at $17,500,000, and the whole of the sacred utensils were reckoned to be worth $200,000,000. There are still other wonderful things mentioned. One, the subterraneous banqueting rooms, which were made under the River Euphrates and were constructed entirely of bra.s.s; and then, as one of the seven wonders of the world, were the famous hanging gardens; they were 400 feet square and were raised 350 feet high, one terrace above the other, and were ascended by a staircase ten feet wide. The terraces were supported by large vaultings resting upon curb-shaped pillars and were hollow and filled with earth, to allow trees of the largest size to be planted, the whole being constructed of baked bricks and asphalt. The entire structure was strengthened and bound together by a wall twenty-two feet in thickness. The level of the terrace was covered with large stones, over which was a bed of rushes, then a thick layer of asphalt, next two courses of bricks likewise cemented with asphalt, and finally plates of lead to prevent leakage, the earth being heaped on the platform and terrace and large trees planted. The whole had the appearance from a distance of woods overhanging mountains.

The great work is affirmed to have been effected by Nebuchadnezzar to gratify his wife, Anytis, daughter of Astyages, who retained strong predilection for the hills and groves which abounded in her native Media.

Babylon flourished for nearly 200 years in this scale of grandeur, during which idolatry, pride, cruelty, and every abomination prevailed among all ranks of the people, when G.o.d, by His prophet, p.r.o.nounced its utter ruin, which was accordingly accomplished, commencing with Cyrus taking the city, after a siege of two years, in the year 588 Before Christ, to emanc.i.p.ate the Jews, as foretold by the prophets. By successive overthrows this once "Glory of the Chaldees' Excellency,"

this "Lady of Kingdoms," has become a "desolation" without an inhabitant, and its temple a vast heap of rubbish.

The ancient Tower of Babel is now a mound of oblong form, the total circ.u.mference of which is 2,286 feet. At the eastern side it is cloven by a deep furrow and is not more than fifty or sixty feet high, but on the western side it rises in a conical figure to the elevation of 198 feet, and on its summit is a solid pile of brick thirty-seven feet in height and twenty-eight in breadth, diminishing in thickness to the top, which is broken and irregular and rent by large fissures extending through a third of its height; it is perforated with small holes.

The fire-burnt bricks of which it is built have inscriptions on them, and so excellent is the cement, which appears to be lime mortar, that it is nearly impossible to extract one whole. The other parts of the summit of this hill are occupied by immense fragments of brickwork of no determinate figure, tumbled together and converted into solid vitrified ma.s.ses, as if they had undergone the action of the fiercest fire, or had been blown up by gunpowder, the layers of brick being perfectly discernible. These ruins surely proclaim the divinity of the Scriptures. Layard says the discoveries amongst the ruins of ancient Babylon were far less numerous and important than could have been antic.i.p.ated. No sculptures or inscribed slabs, the paneling of the walls of palaces, appear to exist beneath them, as in those of Nineveh. Scarcely a detached figure in stone, or a solitary tablet, has been dug out of the vast heaps of rubbish. "Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her G.o.ds he hath broken unto the ground." (Isaiah xxi. 9.)

The complete absence of such remains is to be explained by the nature of the materials used in the erection of even the most costly edifices of Babylon. In the vicinity there were no quarries of alabaster, or of limestone, such as existed near Nineveh. The city was built in the midst of an alluvial country, far removed from the hills. The deposits of the mighty rivers which have gradually formed the Mesopotamian plains consist of a rich clay. Consequently stone for building purposes could only be obtained from a distance. The black basalt, a favorite material amongst the Babylonians for carving detached figures, and for architectural ornaments, as appears from fragments found amongst the ruins, came from the Kurdish Mountains, or from the north of Mesopotamia.