[15] Rawlinson (The Five Great Monarchies, vol. i. p. 286), and Lenormant (Historie ancienne, vol. ii. p. 196) make the two parts of the platform—the arms of the T and its shank—different in height. In doing so they have borrowed a mistake from Botta. The mistake is easily understood in the case of Rawlinson, whose fourth edition, although published in 1879, reproduces the plans compiled by Fergusson after Botta. We are more surprised at Lenormant falling into the same error, as he gives an excellent résumé of Place’s discoveries. Botta seems to have thought the two parts of the palace had different levels in consequence of an inequality in the distribution of the fallen materials. In the neighbourhood of the latter buildings, such as the so-called Observatory, and where the open spaces were fewer and less ample, there was, of course, a thicker bed of rubbish than where the buildings were lower and the walls farther apart. But wherever the original surface of the mound was reached, Place ascertained that its level never varied. In none of his plans is there the slightest trace of any slope or staircase leading from one level to the other, so far as the summit of the platform is concerned.
[16] Layard, Monuments, 2nd series, plates 14 and 15.
[17] Thomas placed this ramp at the south-east rather than at the south-west because it seemed better to make it lead direct to H, the forecourt of the sélamlik, than to break in upon the privacy of the harem at the opposite corner.
[18] This court was about 206 feet wide, by 366 feet long.
[19] The letters on our plan signify courts, or rooms—like some of those in the harem—that were only partially roofed in.
[20] Place, Ninive, vol. i. p. 57.
[21] Lenormant, Manuel d’Histoire ancienne, vol. ii. p. 197.
[22] See Vol. I. page 392.
[23] Oppert, Expédition scientitique, vol. ii. p. 242.
[24] The doorway beside which these artificial palms are raised is that which leads from the court U to the hall marked Y on the plan. As to the elements made use of in our restoration, see Place, vol. i. pp. 114–127, and vol. ii. p. 35. We have already noticed the discovery of the metal-sheathed poles (p. 202, and fig. 72).