[35] Diodorus, ii. viii. 3–4.
[36] Diodorus, ii. viii. 7.
[37] Oppert, Expédition scientifique de Mésopotamie, vol. i. p. 150. See also Layard, Discoveries, p. 508, upon the tradition of the Arabs relating to the tall tamarisk, the only tree that grows on the summit of the mound.
[38] J. Ménant, Babylon et la Chaldée (1 vol. 8vo. 1875), p. 181.
[39] Diodorus (ii. 10), speaks of λίθιναι δοκοί, or stone beams, to which he attributes a length of sixteen feet, and a width of four; Strabo (xvii. i. 5) makes use of the expression, ψαλιδώματα καμαρωτά, which means vaulted arcades. Both writers agree that there were several terraces one above another. Diodorus says that the whole—as seen from the Euphrates no doubt—looked like a theatre. Both give the same measurements to these hanging gardens; they tell us they made a square of from three to four plethra each way (410 feet). The mound of Tell-Amran is much larger than this, and if it really be on the site of the famous gardens, it must include the ruins of other buildings besides, pleasure houses, chapels and kiosks, like those figured in the reliefs, to which we have already had frequent occasion to allude.
[40] Layard believes himself to have ascertained that the buildings on one part of the Nimroud mound were ruined and covered with earth, when those upon another part of the platform were founded. The paved floor of the north-western palace is on a level with the upper part of the walls of the north-eastern and central palaces (Nineveh, vol. iii. p. 202).
[41] George Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, (pp. 71–73), gives the following résumé of the monumental history of Calah, from the inscriptions found at Nimroud. “A city was built on this spot by Shalmaneser I., King of Assyria, B.C. 1300, but this afterwards fell into decay, and was destroyed during the subsequent troubles which came on the Assyrian Empire. Assurnazirpal, who ascended the Assyrian throne B.C. 885, resolved to rebuild the city; and bringing numbers of captives taken during his wars, he set them to work to rebuild Calah, and then settled there to inhabit it. The north-west palace and the temples near the tower were the work of this king, and from these came most of the fine Nimroud sculptures in the British Museum. Shalmaneser II., King of Assyria, succeeded his father Assurnazirpal, B.C. 860. He built the centre palace, and the base at least of the south-eastern palace. Vulnirari III., his grandson, B.C. 812, built the upper chambers and the temple of Nebo; and Tiglath-pileser II., B.C. 745, rebuilt the centre palace. Sargon, King of Assyria, B.C. 722, restored the north-west palace, and his grandson, Esarhaddon, B.C. 681, built the south-west palace. Lastly the grandson of Esarhaddon, Assur-ebil-ili, the last King of Assyria, rebuilt the temple of Nebo just before the destruction of the Assyrian Empire.” A general description of the platform and the buildings upon it will be found in Layard, Discoveries, pp. 653–656.
[42] This idea is favoured by Layard (Discoveries, p. 654).
[43] The central palace was partly destroyed even in the days of the Assyrians, by a king who wished to make use of its materials. Layard (Nineveh, ii. p. 19) found more than a hundred sculptured slabs stacked against each other, as if in a warehouse. The architect of Esarhaddon, the author of this spoliation, had not finished his work when it was suddenly interrupted. For a full account of the discoveries in the south-eastern palace, see Layard, Nineveh, ii. pp. 38–40.
[44] Especially from the central palace (Layard, Discoveries, p. 656). The small rectangles shown on our plan at each side of the wall dividing the rooms marked 2 and 3 from each other, represent slabs lying on the ground at the foot of the wall for whose decoration they were intended. They were never put in place. The bases of circular pedestals, standing very slightly above the ground, are also marked. Sir H. Layard could not divine their use.