Fig. 49.—Plan of Dur-Sarrukin (after Place, pl. 2).
The wall of circumvallation, the angles of which pointed to the four quarters of the heavens, as in the Chaldæan buildings, was crowned with battlements and pierced by eight gates protected by towers.
The king’s palace ([fig. 50]) stood almost in the middle of the north-eastern façade, and a part of its structure which projected beyond the ramparts had the appearance of an enormous bastion. The structure of this palace was supported by a platform which formed an acropolis nearly twenty-five acres in area. The mass of clay which had to be brought to raise the terrace and the walls of the palace has been estimated at 48,233,000 cubic feet. The platform overlooked the town, and was reached by staircases, destroyed at the present day, but which must have been analogous to the monumental staircase which formed the ascent to the palace of Sennacherib, and
Fig. 50.—Plan of the palace of Sargon (after Place, pl. 7).
the traces of which Sir A. H. Layard recognised. As at Tello, a gentle ascent on an inclined plane was formed for the passage of vehicles. The royal apartments built upon the terrace comprised no less than two hundred and nine more or less spacious rooms, the walls of which, laid bare by Botta and Place, are still sometimes twenty-six feet high and always reach at least ten feet in the parts most demolished. It was not easy to determine the destination of these different halls. However, by comparison with the