volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

The City of Ashur. loi
Kal'at Sharkat/ or the " Eastern Fortress," I reminded
the raftsman that we must stop there. This he strongly
objected to do, and urged as his excuse the existence of
several rapids which ought to be passed before sunset.
And pointing to the strong swift current rimning in the
river he said that only Allah could bring the raft to land
safely, and by way of settling the matter he asked if I
thought he was Allah ? The argument I used convinced
him that he could land us near the ruins on
the west bank, and he did so, near the Wadi ash-
Shababik, or " Valley of Windows," a little to the north
of the ancient mound. We went up to the highest point
and so obtained a good general view of the ruins, which
seemed to consist of a series of mounds of debris,
apparently of many periods. The general arrangement
of the old Assyrian city was substantially that of Nineveh
and Kalkhu (Nimrud), for all the royal buildings, including
the palace and the chief temple, stood in one
quarter of the area. The remains of the great ziggurat
are at the north end of the city and were then about
140 feet high, and the circuit of the area of the city,
which contained about two hundred and twenty-five
acres, seemed to be about two and a half miles. On the
river side the mound was very steep. Each of the large
mounds probably covered some great building or temple.
The Turkish guardhouse, which was dignified by the name
of " Castle " (Kal'ah), was a tumble-down building, but
the occupants showed me much civility and invited me
to drink coffee with them. They seemed genuinely
glad to see strangers, and wished us to spend the night
under their roof. They were stationed at Kal'at SharkM
* This is the transcription of the Arabic u^Uy. ui, as Rawlinson
wrote the name. In Baghdad a scribe wrote the name for me thus,
LljLb IjJi, Kal'at Sharkat, and I have seen the name spelt " Kal'at
Sharghit," euViti ^. The Turks call the place Tfiprak Kal'at,
^ which means
j\)i^, " Earth Castle." Which Arabic form is the
more correct cannot be said until the meaning of thp name is known.
Sharkit, or Sharghit, probably hides an ancient Assyrian name for
the city or district.