volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

92 The Ziggurat of Nimritd.
the strongest section of the wall seemed to have been
on the north side. Some of the deeper cuttings m the
west side of the platform may once have contained
stairways. Layard proved by his excavations that the
artificial mound was occupied by four palaces or royal
buildings of some kind, and the sites of these were
distinctly visible. They were enclosed by a wall quite
separated from the city wall. At the north-west corner
of the walled enclosure are the remains of a great zigguraf
or temple-tower, which stood upon a rectangular
base of burnt bricks faced with slabs of stone, though
the upper part of it was made of sun-dried bricks. Rich
estimated its height at 144^ feet from the ground,' and
Fehx Jones at 133 feet above the low autumnal level
of the Tigris, and about 60 feet above the platforin of
the palaces.' Recent measurements make its height
above the plain to be no feet, and above the platform
about 70 feet. "When Smith was digging into this
ziggurat he concluded from certain remains which he
found on the southern face, that there had once existed
a flight of steps on that side leading up to the tower.*
On the south and east sides of the platform of Nimrud
there were several mounds which did not seem to me to
have been excavated, and in the largest of these (that
on the south side) one of the natives showed me the tops
of some slabs which resembled in general form and
thickness the bas-reliefs of Ashur-nasir-pal in the British
Museum. It is much to be hoped that one day all
these mounds will be excavated and the debris in
the ruined palaces carefully searched through for fragments.
Many European travellers had seen the place and
wondered what these mounds might cover, but the first
to call the attention of the learned world to their
^ For Koldewey's description of the ziggurat see his Die Tempel
van Babylon und Borsippa, Berlin, 1911, p. 64.
' Narrative, ii, p. 132.
' Topography, p. 452.
* Assyrian Discoveries, p. 75.