61. Plan of Palace at Khorsabad, as completely excavated by M. Place. The parts tinted were actually found. Those in outline are conjectural.
These portals led to the great outer court of the palace, measuring 315 ft. by 280 between the buttresses with which it was adorned all round. On the right hand were six or seven smaller courts surrounded by the stables and outhouses of the palace, which were approached by a ramp on the outside, at the head of which was a block of buildings containing the cellarage, and generally the stores of eatables. On the left hand of this court were the metal stores, each room having been appropriated to iron, copper, or other such materials, and behind them, outside the palace, was the hareem.[[81]]
In the northern angle, a rather insignificant passage formed a means of communication between this great outer court and the next, which was 360 ft. long by 200 wide, and probably open to the country, at least in front of the great portals. On the inner side of this second court a magnificent portal opened into what appears to have been the residential portion of the palace, measuring nearly 300 by 500 ft. over all.
62. Existing Remains of Propylæa at Khorsabad.
The proper entrance to this court was by the ramp before alluded to, which was indeed the only access to the palace for chariots and horsemen. From the second court, through the only vaulted passage in the palace, access was obtained to the state apartments looking over the country. The three principal of these are shown to a larger scale in the woodcut (No. [63]), with their dimensions figured upon them. The next woodcut (No. [64]) is a restored section of these apartments, showing what their arrangement was, and the mode in which it is conceived they were roofed, according to the information gathered on the spot, and what we find afterwards practised at Persepolis and elsewhere.[[82]]
63. Enlarged Plan of the Three Principal Rooms at Khorsabad. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
It will be observed that the area covered by the walls is of nearly the same extent as that of the rooms themselves, so that the galleries formed in fact an upper storey to the palace; and thus, in the heat of the day, the thickness of the walls kept the inner apartments free from heat and glare, while in the evenings and mornings the galleries formed airy and light apartments, affording a view over the country, and open on every side to the breezes that at times blow so refreshingly over the plains. It will also be observed that by this arrangement the direct rays of the sun could never penetrate into the halls themselves, and that rain, or even damp, could easily be excluded by means of curtains or screens.
