[475] We take these details from Professor Rawlinson's essay on the topography of Babylon.
[476] Xenophon, Anabasis, iii, 4, 9.
[477] Layard, Discoveries, pp. 126-128, and map 2.
[478] At Kaleh Shergat, where the site of an important, but as yet unidentified Assyrian city has been recognized, there is a conical mound, recalling in its general aspect the Nimroud tower, which must contain all that is left of a zigguratt; but no deep excavations have yet been made in it (Layard, Nineveh, vol. ii. p. 61).
[479] Place, Ninive, vol. i. pp. 147-148, and plates 36-37.
[480] See above, pp. 272-274.
[481] We have already mentioned the size of its steps; see page 192. The gradient for the first stage was about one in twenty. In the upper stages it must have been far steeper, as the circumference of the stages was much less, while their height remained the same. It never became very abrupt however, as supposing that the original number of stories was seven, the gradient would not be more than about one in fourteen close to the summit.
[482] Lenormant, Histoire ancienne, vol. ii. p. 200 (3rd edition).
[483] The position occupied by this staged tower in the plan of the royal palace at Khorsabad suggests that perhaps neither of the two explanations of its purpose here alluded to is the true one. It is placed immediately outside the Harem wall—and as to the identity of the Harem there can be no doubt—in such a way that any one ascending it must have had an uninterrupted view into the numerous courts of the women's apartments. Such a possibility seems inconsistent with the numerous precautions taken to secure the privacy of that part of the palace (see Vol. II. Chapter I. § 2). Perhaps the real solution of the difficulty is to be found in a suggestion made, but only to be cast aside, by Mr. Fergusson, that this Khorsabad zigguratt was, in fact, a private oratory for the exclusive use of Sargon himself (History of Architecture, vol. i. p. 173).—Ed.