DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26747#0242
178
ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE.
Eook IV.
whole design more elahorate, tlian in any of the more ancient examples
we are acqnainted with.
Besides these, there were on the mound at Nimroud a central palace
huilt hy Tiglath Pileser, and one at the south-eastern angle of the
mound, huilt hy a grandson of Esarhaddon, hut hoth too much ruined
for any one now to he ahle to trace either their form or extent; and
around the great Pyramid, at the north-west angle, were huilclings
more like temples than anything else on the mound—all their sculptures
apparently pointing to devotional purposes, though their forms are very
much the same as those of the paiaces, and there certainly is nothing
in them to inclicate that tlie mound at whose hase they were situatecl
was appropriated to the dead, or to funereal purposes. Between the
north-west and south-west palaces also was raised a terrace higher than
the rest, on which were situated some' chamhers whose use it is not
easy to determine.
Notwithstanding this impossihility of making out all the details of
the huildings situated on the great mounds of Nimroud and Koyunjik,
these great groups of huildings must have ranked among the most
splendid monuments of antiquity, surrounded as they were hy stone-
faced terraces, approached on every side hy nohle flights of stairs, and
surmountecl hy great palaces, with towers and temples, ancl other
huildings, of which only the most indistinct traces now remain. AYhen
all this was seen gay with colour, and crowded with all the state and
splendour of an eastern monarch, it must have formed a scene of such
clazzling magnificence that one can easily comprehend how the inha-
hitants of the little cities of Greece were hetrayed into such extravagant
hyperbole when speaking of the size and splendour of the great cities
of Assyria.
The worst feature of all this splendour was its ephemeral character—
tliough perhaps it is owing to this very fact that we now know so much
ahout it—like the reed that hends to the storm and recovers its elasticity,
while the oak is snapped hy its violence. Had these huildings heen
eonstructed like those of the Egyptians, their remains would prohahly
have heen applied to other purposes long ago; hut having heen over-
whelmed so early and forgotten, they have heen preserved to our day, and
it is not difficult to see how this was clone. The pillars that supported
the roof heing of wood, prohahly of cedar, and the heams on under
side of the roof heing of the same material, nothing was so easy as to
set fire to them. The fall of the roofs, which were probably composed, as
at the present day, of 5 or 6 ft. of earth, required to keep out the heat
as well as the wet, would alone suffice to hury the huilding up to the
lieight of the sculptures. The gradual crumbling of the thick walls
consequent on their unprotected exposure to the atmosphere would add
3 or 4 ffc. to this ; so that it is hardly too much to suppose that green
grass might have heen growing over the huried palaces of Nineveh
hefore two or three years had elapsed from the time of their destruction
and desertion. When once this had taken place, the mounds were far
too tempting positions not to he speedily occupied hy the villages of
the natives ; and a few centuries of mud-hut huiiding would complete
ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE.
Eook IV.
whole design more elahorate, tlian in any of the more ancient examples
we are acqnainted with.
Besides these, there were on the mound at Nimroud a central palace
huilt hy Tiglath Pileser, and one at the south-eastern angle of the
mound, huilt hy a grandson of Esarhaddon, hut hoth too much ruined
for any one now to he ahle to trace either their form or extent; and
around the great Pyramid, at the north-west angle, were huilclings
more like temples than anything else on the mound—all their sculptures
apparently pointing to devotional purposes, though their forms are very
much the same as those of the paiaces, and there certainly is nothing
in them to inclicate that tlie mound at whose hase they were situatecl
was appropriated to the dead, or to funereal purposes. Between the
north-west and south-west palaces also was raised a terrace higher than
the rest, on which were situated some' chamhers whose use it is not
easy to determine.
Notwithstanding this impossihility of making out all the details of
the huildings situated on the great mounds of Nimroud and Koyunjik,
these great groups of huildings must have ranked among the most
splendid monuments of antiquity, surrounded as they were hy stone-
faced terraces, approached on every side hy nohle flights of stairs, and
surmountecl hy great palaces, with towers and temples, ancl other
huildings, of which only the most indistinct traces now remain. AYhen
all this was seen gay with colour, and crowded with all the state and
splendour of an eastern monarch, it must have formed a scene of such
clazzling magnificence that one can easily comprehend how the inha-
hitants of the little cities of Greece were hetrayed into such extravagant
hyperbole when speaking of the size and splendour of the great cities
of Assyria.
The worst feature of all this splendour was its ephemeral character—
tliough perhaps it is owing to this very fact that we now know so much
ahout it—like the reed that hends to the storm and recovers its elasticity,
while the oak is snapped hy its violence. Had these huildings heen
eonstructed like those of the Egyptians, their remains would prohahly
have heen applied to other purposes long ago; hut having heen over-
whelmed so early and forgotten, they have heen preserved to our day, and
it is not difficult to see how this was clone. The pillars that supported
the roof heing of wood, prohahly of cedar, and the heams on under
side of the roof heing of the same material, nothing was so easy as to
set fire to them. The fall of the roofs, which were probably composed, as
at the present day, of 5 or 6 ft. of earth, required to keep out the heat
as well as the wet, would alone suffice to hury the huilding up to the
lieight of the sculptures. The gradual crumbling of the thick walls
consequent on their unprotected exposure to the atmosphere would add
3 or 4 ffc. to this ; so that it is hardly too much to suppose that green
grass might have heen growing over the huried palaces of Nineveh
hefore two or three years had elapsed from the time of their destruction
and desertion. When once this had taken place, the mounds were far
too tempting positions not to he speedily occupied hy the villages of
the natives ; and a few centuries of mud-hut huiiding would complete