volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

lo Rich Examines the Ruins of Nineveh,
walls of the "Potent Town of Nineveh."^ The only
exception was Niebuhr, who actually rode over Nineveh,
and did not know it until the natives told him where he
was ! The mounds containing the ruins of the walls he
regarded as a row of hills, and did not find out his mistake
until it was pointed out to him.^ The Kala'at Nunya, or
" Castle of Nineveh," which he mentions, was probably
the mass of ruins about one of the gateways in the north
wall. It is interesting to note that the village of "Koindsjug,"
i.e., Kuyunjik, was in existence in his time.
The first systematic examination of the ruins of Nineveh
was made by C. J. Rich, British Consul at Baghdad,
during the four visits which he paid to Mosul between 1808
and 1820.' According to him the area of Nineveh is
from 1 1 to 2 miles broad, and 4 miles long. On the north,
south, and west sides are the remains of only one wall,
but on the east side are the remains of three. The
greatest height of the mound of Nabi Yunis is about 50
feet, and in front of this mound the west wall ran. The
mound of Kuyunjik is of irregular form, its sides are very
steep, and its top is nearly fiat. Its perpendicular height
is 43 feet, and its total circumference 7,691 feet. The
ruins at Nineveh all belong to the same period, and the
area enclosed within walls only represented a very small
portion of Nineveh. Whether Rich actually made excavations
at Nineveh is doubtful, but it is quite clear that he
deduced sufficient evidence from the diggings of the
natives, who were searching for stones and bricks and
alabaster slabs to burn, to convince him that the remains
of great buildings lay buried in the mounds of Kuyunjik
^ Rauwolf, Travels, i, p. 204.
^ "Ich erfuhr es nicht eher dass ich an einem so merkwiirdigen
Orte war, als nahe am Flusse . . . zeigte man nur auch noch die
Walle von Ninive die ich auf meiner Durchreise nicht bemerkt, sondern
flir eine Reihe Hiigel gehalten hatte." Reisebeschreibung, tome ii, p. 353.
' See Residence in KoordisUn, vol. ii, p. 34 ff. Kinneir examined
the mounds opposite M6sul in November, 1810, and he describes the
area of Nineveh as an oblong square not four miles in compass. See
his Geographical Memoir, London, 1813, p. 258, and his Journey through
Asia Minor, Armenia and Koordistan in the years 1813 and 1814, London,
1818, pp. 461, 462.