'Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh; with Journal of a Voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad and an Account of a Visit to Shirauz and Persepolis.' [‎131] (166/450)

CH. XVIII.] RUINS OF NIMROD's CITY.
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The Turks generally believe this to have been
Nimrod's own city ; and one or two of the better
informed with whom I conversed at Mousul said it was
Al Athnr or Ashur, from which the whole country
was denominated*. It is curious that the villagers
o
of Deraweish still consider Nimrod as their founder.
The village story-tellers have a book they call the
" Kisseh Nimrod," or Tales of Nimrod, with which
they entertain the peasants on a winter night.
But to come to a description of the ruins. The
above-mentioned pyramid forms the north-west angle
of the platform, which aligns with the face of the
pyramid. At the west base of the pyramid are a few
yards of the same kind of concrete building which I
had observed at Nineveh. Indeed these ruins singu
larly illustrate those of Nineveh, and I was delighted
to find scattered about fragments of burnt bricks
with cuneiform inscriptions on them. I immediately
sent to the village to try to procure a whole one, and
was successful. I obtained a brick covered with
cuneiform writing on the face and the edge; the
* In the name of this obscure place seems to be preserved that
of the first settler of the country, and from this spot, perhaps, that
name extended over the whole vast region. See Gen. x. 11. " Out
of that land went forth Ashur and builded Nineveh," &c.; or, as
it has been rendered, "Out of that land he went forth into Ashur,"
i.e. Assyria. The former translation seems the preferable one;
and the position of this village is favourable to the supposition of
its having received very early a name afterwards to become so
celebrated.
K 2