BABYLON AND PERSIA

284 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA..indestructible, and, first of all, inaccessible to thesacrilegious hand of invader or domestic foe Thiswas so well secured by the height at which the workwas executed-over 300 feet from the base,-thatcould be scarcely got at for the purpose of study-"mg 01 copymg It. Indeed, the French scholars,Messrs. Flandin and Coste, after many attempts gaveup the task, which it was the glory of Sir He;fythenMajor-Rawlinson, with the help of field-glassessuccessfully to achieve, at the cost of three yearslabor(i844-i847)-infinite hardships and dangerand an outlay of over five thousand dollars. Lwthe artists and engravers originally ever got to theplace, IS a question which the steepness of the ascentmakes veiy puzzling, unless there were some prac¬ticable paths which were cut away subsequentlyand even then they could not have worked withoutladders and scaffoldings. Besides, the rock had toundergo an elaborate preliminary preparation. Notonly was the surface smoothed down almost to a stateo polish, but wherever the stone showed crevices ordints It was closely plastered with a kind of cementrnatching and fitting it so exactly as to be hardly dis:t.ngu.shable. The result of all this foresight andpainstaking, we have before us in the shape of a veryremarkable piece of historical sculpture, surroundedby numerous columns of inscription, making in allover one thousand lines of cuneiform writin