114 Letter from Rev. Dr. Smith on the Ruins of Nineveh. 
was destroyed about the beginning of the seventh century before 
Christ, and, though afterwards rebuilt by the Persians, it never 
reattained its former splendor. In the seventh century of the 
Christian era, it was finally destroyed by the Saracens, and. its 
name and its place would have been quite forgotten, but for the 
prominence given it by the records of inspiration. Indeed its 
geographical position has been so much involved in doubt as to 
render it a worthy subject of scientific inquiry, but the result of 
the observations of Rich and others has been to fix its locality 
on the east bank of the river Tigris, (called by the Arabs, Shat, ) 
directly opposite the modern city of Mosul. There, ruined walls 
of sun-dried brick still remain, varying from fifteen to fifty feet 
in heighth, and enclosing a space about four miles long and a mile 
anda half broad ; the whole of which is strewed with fragments 
of pottery and other marks indicating the site of an ancient city. 
Two immense mounds occupy each several acres of this area ; one 
of them is about a mile and a half in circumference, and fifty feet 
high,—and the other, though smaller, is sufficiently large to con- 
tain upon its top and sides,—as it does at the present time,—a vil- 
lage of two or three hundred houses. The principal mosque of 
this village is said to cover the tomb of Jonah, and hence the 
village is called by the Arabs, Nebi Yunis, or the ‘ prophet Jonah.’ 
On the east side of the enclosed space above referred to, there are 
two walls, at their southern extremity approximating, and at their 
northern about three quarters of a mile distant from each other. 
The outer of these appears to be the older one and probably re- 
mains from the Assyrian city, while the inner and more modern 
may have been constructed when the place was rebuilt: by the 
Persians. Just within the outer wall, there is an artificial chan- 
nel, several yards in width, cut, in some places, through solid 
rock, and in the enclosed space west of the inner, where are also 
the two mounds spoken of, foundations still remain, marking the 
site of buildings, and of arches, which, at different places, once 
stretched accross the Khausser,—a stream which passes through 
the ruins from east to west, and a half mile farther on empties 
into the Tigris. Several bricks and other fragments covered with 
inscriptions in the ‘cuneiform character,’ and one or two large 
blocks, having on them figures in bas-relief, have also been found, 
most of them in connection with one or other of the two mounds. 
All these ruins, together with the general locality of the place, 
. 
