92 
ASSYEIAN ANTIQUITIES. 
[ground 
In accordance with the system here pursued, under which 
the visitor to the Sculpture Galleries is conducted, as far as pos- 
sible, continuously from the later monuments to the earlier, it 
is necessary, after quitting the Greek collection, to pass through 
the Nimroud Central Saloon, by its North door, to the 
KOUYUNJIK GALLERY. 
The Collection of bas-reliefs in this room was procured by 
Mr. Layard, in 1849 and 1850, from the remains of a veiy 
extensive Assyrian edifice at Kouyunjik, which appears, from 
the inscriptions remaining on many of its sculptures, to have 
been the palace of Sennacherib, who is supposed to have com- 
menced his reign about B.C. 700. It was subsequently occu- 
pied by his grandson Assurbanipal, who reigned towards the 
middle of the seventh century B.C. Monuments of both these 
kings are included in the collection. Those of Sennacherib 
are sculptured generally in gypsum or alabaster, those of 
Assurbanipal in a harder limestone. Most of the sculptures 
were split and shattered by the action of fire, the palace 
having apparently been burnt, probably at the destruction of 
Nineveh : indeed, many single slabs reached this country in 
300 or 400 pieces. These have been simply rejoined, with- 
out attempt at restoration. To the left on entering is — 
No. 1. A cast from a bas-rehef cut in the rock, at the mouth of the 
Nahr-el-Kelb River, near Beyrout, in Syria, close to the immemorial 
highway between Egypt and Asia Minor. It represents Esarhaddon 
standing in the conventional attitude of worship, with sacred or sym- 
bolical emblems of deities above him, and is covered with a cuneiform 
inscription. In the rock, adjoining the original relief, are six similar 
Assyrian tablets, and three Egyptian bas-reliefs, with hieroglyphic 
inscriptions, bearing the name of Rameses II., who at an earlier period 
is supposed to have passed through Palestine. 
The sculptures on the left, or West side of the GaUery, are 
all of the period of Sennacherib, and illustrate the wars he 
carried on, and the tributes he received. They are, for the 
most part, fragments of more extensive works. The most in- 
teresting subjects are as foUows : — 
