EXCAVATIONS IN CHALD^A. 73 



the walls of Nineveh, described by Xenophon as being 

 upwards of 100 feet in height in his day, and still 

 standing to a height of from 40 to 50 feet, guard well 

 the treasures which they conceal. ^ At the mound of 

 Nimrud farther south, marking the site of a town 

 founded by Shalmanezer in the year 1300 B.C., which 

 reached the zenith of its greatness as the capital of 

 King Asshurnazirpal in the ninth century B.C., there 

 is far more to be seen than there is at Koyunjik. Here 

 the tunnels dug by Sir H. Layard are still open, and 

 the outside casing of huge square blocks of stone of 

 the observatory tower are still visible and in excellent 

 preservation.^ A vast store of monuments of the 

 greatest interest have been removed from here, con- 

 spicuous among them the famous black obelisk and a 

 statue of Nebo, which now repose in the British 

 Museum ; but even so, many carved stones are still 

 lying where they were found, including the large figure 

 of a man, the lower half still buried in the earth, and 

 some beautiful specimens of the great winged bulls 

 common at the entrance to the courts of Assyrian 

 palaces. 



At Babylon, where German scientists had already 

 been at work for four years, having built themselves, 

 with German thoroughness, a house on the spot, still 

 more is to be seen. The excavations, carried on 

 systematically and thoroughly, have already laid bare 

 the pavemented streets and the solid walls of the 

 palaces and temples of the city described by Herodotus. 

 In one part there is an excellent specimen of a keystone 



1 We may hope, however, to hear of further discoveries at Koyunjik, 

 since Mr L. W. King arrived there in the spring of 1903 to carry on ex- 

 cavations on behalf of the British Museum. 



2 This is one of the two ziggurats which have been found to have their 

 sides and not their corners facing the four cardinal points. The other is 

 the temple of Bel in Babylon. 



