[275] Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. part ii. ch. 2. A recent trigonometrical survey of the country by Captain Jones proves, I am informed, that the great ruins of Kouyunjik, Nimroud, Karamless, and Khorsabad, form very nearly a perfect parallelogram, corresponding with the conjecture I ventured to make in my former work. A recent writer (Bonomi, Nineveh and its Palaces, p. 94), adopting the theory of the greater extent of Nineveh, has endeavored to prove that the Gebel Makloub is the remains of its eastern walls, stating that he “has the testimony of a recent observant traveller, Mr. Barker, who has no doubt that the so-called ‘mountain’ is entirely the work of man.” Unfortunately it happens that the Gebel Makloub is somewhat higher, and far more precipitous and rocky than the Malvern hills. It would, indeed, have required Titans to raise such a heaven-reaching wall! Scarcely less extravagant are the conjectures that the mound is called Kouyumjik, not Kouyunjik, because silver ornaments may have been found there, and that Yaroumjeh, a mere Turkish name meaning “half-way village,” is “roum,” “signifying the territory and inhabitants of the Roman empire,” and, consequently, a part of Nineveh, “Roman and ancient being synonymous terms!” The line, too, indicated in Mr. Bonomi’s diagram for the former bed of the Tigris, in order to complete the parallelogram, would take the river over a range of steep limestone hills. I may here observe that the name of “Niniouah” is not known in the country as applied either to the mound of Nebbi Yunus, or any other ruin in the country. Before founding theories upon such grounds, it would be as well to have some little acquaintance with the localities and with the languages spoken by the people of the country.
[276] 1 Kings, v. 15.
[277] The Jewish cubit appears to have been about eighteen inches.
[278] The height, according to 2 Chron. iii. 4, was 120 cubits, which would appear to be an error slipt into the text, although Josephus gives the same dimensions, adding an upper story or structure.
[279] Mr. Fergusson has pointed out, from the account of Josephus, the probability of the temple having had two stories. (The Palaces of Nineveh restored, p. 222.)
[280] See Calmet’s Dictionary of the Bible.
[281] See frontispiece to Fergusson’s Palaces of Nineveh restored.
[282] Josephus, b. viii. c. 2. Fergusson’s Palaces of Nineveh, p. 229.
[283] It will be remembered that the annals on the bulls of Kouyunjik include six years of his reign, and must consequently have been inscribed on them in the seventh year.
[284] 1 Kings, v. 8.