; the first sign means "dwelling" or "habitation," and the second "land, country," etc., and we may regard it as the "inhabited country," par excellence, of Lower Babylonia at a very early period. The site of Erech is well-known, and is marked by the vast ruins which the Arabs call "Warkah," or Al-Warkah. These lie in 31° 19′ N. Lat. and 45° 40′ E. Long., and are about four miles from the Euphrates, on the left or east bank of the river. Sir W. K. Loftus carried out excavations on the site in 1849–52, and says that the external walls page 56nof sun-dried brick enclosing the main portion of the ruins form an irregular circle five and a half miles in circumference; in places they are from 40 to 50 feet in height, and they seem to have been about 20 feet thick. The turrets on the wall were semi-oval in shape, and about 50 feet apart. The principal ruin is that of the Ziggurat, or temple tower, which in 1850 was 100 feet high and 200 feet square. Loftus calls it "Buwáríya," i.e., "reed mats," because reed mats were used in its construction, but bûrîyah, "rush mat," is a Persian not Arabic word, and the name is more probably connected with the Arabic "Bawâr," i.e., "ruin" "place of death," etc. This tower stood in a courtyard which was 350 feet long and 270 feet wide. The next large ruin is that which is called "Waswas" (plur. "Wasâwis"), i.e., "large stone" The "Waswas" referred to was probably the block of columnar basalt which Loftus and Mr. T. K. Lynch found projecting through the soil; on it was sculptured the figure of a warrior, and the stone itself was regarded as a talisman by the natives. This ruin is 246 feet long, 174 feet wide and 80 feet high. On three sides of it are terraces of different elevations, but the south-west side presents a perpendicular façade, at one place 23 feet in height. For further details see Loftus, Chaldea and Susiana, London, 1857, p. 159 ff. Portions of the ruins of Warkah were excavated by the German archaeologists in 1914, and large "finds" of tablets and other antiquities are said to have been made.
Plates
Plan of the ruins of the walls, temples and palaces of Nineveh, showing the course of the River Khausur, and the great protective ditches outside the eastern wall. The southern mound (Nabi Yûnis) contains the ruins of palaces, etc., built by Sargon II, Sennacherib and Esarhaddon, and the northern mound (Kuyûnjik) the Palaces and Library of Ashur-bani-pal, the Library of Nebo, etc. From the drawing made by the late Commander Felix Jones, I.N.
Baked clay cylinder of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, from B.C. 705 to 681, inscribed with an account of eight campaigns of the king, including the capture and sack of Babylon, the invasion of Palestine, and the siege of Jerusalem; it is dated in the eponymy of Bel-imurani, i.e., B.C. 691. B.M. No. 91,032. This cylinder was found among the ruins of a palace of Sennacherib under the mound of Nabi Yûnis, and was bought by Colonel J. Taylor, Consul-General of Baghdâd in 1830, from whose representatives it was bought by the Trustees of the British Museum in 1855.
Baked clay six-sided cylinder, inscribed with the Annals of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria from B.C. 681–668. B.M. No. 91,028. This cylinder was found in the ruins of the palace of Esarhaddon, under the mound of Nabi Yûnis, and had been "used as a candlestick by a respectable Turcoman family living in the village on the mound near the tomb of the prophet [Jonah]." The grease marks from the candles are still visible on it. It was acquired by Sir Henry Layard and presented by him to the British Museum in 1848.
