Block houses in Nineveh
Most of the houses, of which we have deeds of sale, were situated in Nineveh itself. Occasionally, the house is shut in by more than three others, most often only by three. Then the fourth side is said or implied to be on the street. [pg 246] Hence, we may be sure that in parts of Nineveh, there were continuous blocks of houses, on each side of a street. Sometimes, however, we have a garden, or orchard, as one boundary.
Size not mentioned
Contrary to the practice in Babylonia, the size of the house is rarely given. We have the size of the bîtu akulli given, in one case,[625] as forty-three cubits long and twenty cubits broad. What seem to be the dimensions of an ordinary house were twenty-two by fourteen cubits.[626]
The usual cost
Houses in Assyria sold for from half a mina up to twelve minas; but as long as we are so ignorant of the form, nature, and dimensions of the house and its adjuncts, the information is of very little interest.
Side buildings
A number of other buildings or parcels of land were sold with houses or separately. Thus, we read of a papaḫu, or chamber, which was beneath an adjoining beer-shop.[627] The beer-shop is often mentioned, and was a state-regulated institution.
Unimproved land
A term which was long somewhat of a puzzle, the ki-gallu, usually written Ê-KI-GÀL, or Ê-KI-DAN, is shown definitely by the Code[628] to be a plot of uncultivated land. This might be rented for cultivation and was not necessarily poor land, for it was expected to yield ten GUR per GAN. But it might also lie in a city bounded on four sides by houses,[629] or, as often, by three houses and the street. It was then, of course, a building site. Its price was usually about two shekels per SAR, but might be as high as eight shekels per SAR.[630]