The wealth of the country grew rapidly, owing to the influx of capital and of foreign population; in the intervals between their campaigns its rulers set to work to remove all traces of the ruins which had been allowed to accumulate during the last forty years. The king had built himself a splendid palace at Calah, close to the monuments of Assur-nazir-pal and Shalmaneser III., and its terraces and walls overhung the waters of the Tigris. The main entrance consisted of a Bît-khilâni, one of those porticoes, flanked by towers and supported by columns or pillars, often found in Syrian towns, the fashion for which was now beginning to spread to Western Asia.*
* The precise nature of the edifices referred to in the
inscriptions under the name of Bît-khilâni is still a matter
of controversy. It has been identified with the pillared
hall, or audience-chamber, such as we find in Sargon’s
palace at Khorsabad, and with edifices or portions of
edifices which varied according to the period, but which
were ornamented with columns. It seems clear, however, that
it was used of the whole series of chambers and buildings
which formed the monumental gates of Assyrian palaces,
something analogous to the Migdol of Ramses III. at
Medinet-Habu, and more especially to the gates at Zinjirli.
Those discovered at Zinjirli afford fine examples of the arrangements adopted in buildings of this kind; the lower part of the walls was covered with bas-reliefs, figures of gods and men, soldiers mounted or on foot, victims and fantastic animal shapes; the columns, where there were any, rested on the back of a sphinx or on a pair of griffins of a type which shows a curious mixture of Egyptian and Semitic influences.
Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch published by Luschan.
The wood-work of the Ninevite Bît-khilâni was of cedar from Mount Amanus, the door-frames and fittings were of various rare woods, inlaid with ivory and metal. The entrance was guarded by the usual colossal figures, and the walls of the state reception-rooms were covered with slabs of alabaster; on these, in accordance with the usual custom,* were carved scenes from the royal wars, with explanatory inscriptions. The palace was subsequently dismantled, its pictures defaced and its inscriptions obliterated,** to mark the hatred felt by later generations towards the hero whom they were pleased to regard as a usurper; we can only partially succeed in deciphering his annals by the help of the fragmentary sentences which have escaped the fury of the destroyer.
* The building of Tiglath-pileser’s palace is described in
the Nimroud Inscription. It stood near the centre of the
platform of Nimroud.
** The materials were utilised by Esarhaddon, but it does
not necessarily follow that the palace was dismantled by
that monarch; this was probably done by Sargon or by
Sennacherib.
