124 Letter from Rev. Dr. Smith on the Ruins of Nineveh. 
images made of clay and baked in afurnace. They were found 
in cavities under a brick pavement, which exists in the inner part 
of each entrance. This pavement is composed of two layers, 
and the cavities were formed by leaving out a single brick from 
the lower layer. For what use these hidden images were in- 
tended, can only be a matter of conjecture. Were they tutelary 
deities, placed there to guard the entrances to this monument 
of art? 
To remove any indistinct and incorrect impressions that may 
have been received from reading the above account of these ru- 
ins, it may be well to present a general view of them in another 
form.* For this purpose, with such light as our observation of their 
present state affords, we will endeavor to describe the construc- 
tion and overthrow of this palace, temple, monument of Ninus, 
or, whatever else it be, this depository of ancient archives. For 
its base there was erected an oval mound, nearly half a mile in 
circumference, and twenty feet in heighth above the surrounding 
plain. Over the level surface of this, a layer of sand, brought 
from the Tigris, was spread about a foot in thickness. This 
formed the floor and foundation of the whole building, and was 
made hard by means of stone rollers, (some of which have been 
found,) in the same manner as the roofs of buildings are treated 
throughout the southern part of Turkey in Asia at the present 
day. Besides the doorways, the floor was no where covered, 
except in such places as were peculiarly exposed,—for instance, 
near the walls ;—and here are found two layers of kiln-burnt 
brick, one above and one below the stratum of sand. Upon this 
foundation*thus prepared, the walls of the building were erected. 
These were of sun-dried brick—from ten to fifteen feet in thick- 
ness, and faced every where, next the floor, both within and with- 
out, with blocks of sulphate of lime, ten inches thick, ten feet 
high, and of different breadths, and these were covered on the 
exposed surface with inscriptions and bas-reliefs. Above these 
blocks or slabs, the wall was faced with a tier of kiln-dried brick, 
painted straw-colored on the inside. How high this tier of bricks 
extended, we have no means of determining. Its top must have 
been at least sixteen feet above the floor, as a few of the stones 
lining the wall were of this heighth; and probably it was con- 
siderably higher, else the oxen at the doorways must have reached 
nearly to the ceiling of the room, and accordingly must have 
