'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎400v] (803/862)

TEN HISTORICAL SITES
632
an open canal 40 feet wide from which bricked conduits led to particular
buildings. Farther south a narrower canal supplied the Southern Citadel.
E-Sagila, the temple of Bel-Marduk, the principal sanctuary of Baby
lonia, lies 68 feet below the surface of Amran mound. Its ziggurat,
E-Temen-Anki, the ‘tower of Babel’, lies in a great enclosure 150 yards
to the north. Their outlines were traced by tunnels and shafts and there
is little to be seen, the ziggurat being marked by a deep depression which
has long served as a brick pit to the Arabs. The temple of Ninib, E-
Patutila, was excavated in the low ground 400 yards south-east of E-Sagila.
In the district still called Merkes or City, many private houses have
been excavated and documents discovered in them dating back to Ham
murabi’s period. The streets as far as they have been traced, though not
exactly regular, generally run straight and cross at right angles. The
largest house contained three courtyards, each with a large room on the
southern side and suites of small chambers ranged round the courts. In
the north of Merkes there is the small temple of Ishtar of Agade with the
usual ground plan of vestibule, central courtyard, shrine, and priests’
rooms.
Between Merkes and the Inner Wall there is the ruined Greek theatre,
a building of the Parthian period. It is of unusual design, since a colon
naded courtyard, probably a Gymnasium (p. 228), adjoins or backs on to
the stage.
Ashur, Nineveh, and Khorsabad (photos. 35, 36, 99, 100)
Of the Assyrian cities only the excavations and ruins at Ashur are com
parable to the finest sites of Babylonia. At Nineveh and at Khorsabad
the earlier excavations were done by digging tunnels underground and
sinking shafts, and more recent open diggings have been partly or wholly
filled in.
At Ashur, the oldest of the Assyrian cities, on the right bank of the
1 igris near Qala Sharqat, the walls, quays, and fortifications have been
carefully cleared and stand to a good height. The huge ziggurat mound,
E-Kharsag-Gal-Kurra, ‘great mountain house of all lands’, is an impressive
feature dominating the whole area. There are temples and many royal
palaces, similar in plan to those of Babylon and Ur. A part of the resi
dential quarter has been excavated and contains brick houses of a single
story of the Babylonian type. The town was surrounded by a great wall
pierced by eight gates, and though it ceased to be a capital city when
Shalmaneser III (p. 216) built Calah, it survived as a town to the Parthian
period, and there are palaces and houses in the Graeco-Parthian style.
At Nineveh, opposite Mosul on the right bank of the Tigris, which has
changed its course westward since Assyrian times, there is little to see
beyond the line of outer and inner walls and the two great mounds of
Kuyunjik and Nabi Yunis, topped by its mosque. The son of Tiglath-
Pileser I made it his capital in c. 1080 b.c., but it was Sennacherib (705-