ARCHITECTURE. 19 
of the written alphabet, and for many valuable principles and ascertained 
facts in Geometry and Astronomy. It cannot be a matter of wonder that 
such a people should have spread its dominion over a vast territory, and 
have important colonies on the Euphrates, in Greece, and in other countries, 
and that its genius should have influenced the most talented and eminent 
men of ancient Greece. 
3. AssyriAN, Mepran, Bapytontan, AND Prrstan ARCHITECTURE. 
The city of Nineveh, situated on the banks of the river Euphrates, was 
the metropolis of the kingdom of Assyria, which originally comprised the 
tract of country bordering on the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. But the 
Medes and Babylonians afterwards declared themselves independent, and 
formed two new kingdoms. ‘The chief city of the former was Ecbatana, of 
the latter, Babylon. After the destruction of Nineveh and the incorporation 
of the kingdom of Assyria with that of the Medes (600 s. c.), the kingdoms 
of Babylon and Media were continually contending with each other, until 
they were both conquered by the Persians, under Cyrus, the founder of the 
great Persian Empire. 
Nineveh, which almost exclusively furnishes the materials for the study of 
the architecture of the Assyrians, has only within a very short time been 
excavated from the rubbish by which it had been covered for ages. Accord- 
ing to Herodotus, it was built in the form of a quadrangle, which was 40 
geographical miles in length, by 13 miles in breadth. It was inclosed by 
a wall wide enough for three chariots to drive abreast, 100 feet high, and 
containing 1500 fortified towers of 200 feet in height. This wall was 
probably built of sun-dried bricks, since the conquest of the city was rendered 
possible by the destruction of a large portion, in consequence of an inunda- 
tion of the Euphrates. The most important remains brought to light by the 
latest excavations are some colossal sculptures from the royal palace (pl. 8, 
Jigs. Land 2). 
Ecbatana, the metropolis of Media, and the summer residence of the 
Persian nas, was built by Dejoces qi 00 B. c., upon a hill which was forti- 
fied by seven terraces or walls of mason-work, chet with battlements painted 
of a different color. Alexander the Great, according to lian, when his 
friend Hepheestion had died at Ecbatana, ered itiee walls to be pulled 
down. 
Our knowledge of the history of Babylon is not quite so scanty as that 
of Assyria; still we are acquainted with but few buildings except those of 
the city of Babylon, a city whose erection is due to several sovereigns, and 
particularly to the two queens Semiramis and Nitocris. It was situated in 
a fertile plain on the Euphrates, and formed a square of 81 square miles, 
giving a circumference of 36 miles, surrounded by a wall, which according 
to Pliny was 200 feet high, and according to Strabo 32 feet wide, though 
others assert that it was 400 feet high by 50 feet in width. The two faces 
of the wall were of bricks laid in bitumen, thirty bricks thick, and strength- 
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