Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

164 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
Adverse circumstances and unavoidable delays kept the
members of the expedition three months on their way from
France to Alexandretta, a
time which they employed to the
best of their ability in examining the ancient remains at
Malta, Alexandria, Baalbek, and the Nahr el-Kelb above
Beirut. With fortv mules they finally left Aleppo, and
after an interesting journey via Diarbekr, Mardin, and
Nisibin, on March i, 1852, reached Mosul, where Victor
Place had succeeded Botta
representative of France, while
as vice-consul and archaeological
Lavard, having finished his
second successful campaign at Oovunjuk, had returned to
Europe in the previous year. The very next day after
their arrival on this historical ground the enthusiastic French
commission visited Place at Khorsabad, who had but recently
commenced his operations there. For three weeks they
remained at Mosul, occupying themselves with a study of
the history of the city, examining the ruins of Nineveh on
the other side of the river, taking squeezes, copying cuneiform
inscriptions, and preparing themselves in many other
ways for their impending task at Babylon. As soon as their
large raft of three hundred goat-skins was finished, they
embarked and descended the Tigris, arriving at Baghdad
five days
later.
As we have seen above in
connection with Layard's visit
to Babylonia, there prevailed at the middle of the last
century a general state of anarchv in the northern part of
that country.
Large parties of roaming Arabs, defying the
authority of the Turkish governor, were constantly plundering
pilgrims and caravans, and even made the neighborhood
of Baghdad very unsafe. The French expedition
was not slow in recognizing its unfavorable position. Men
like Rawlinson, who were thoroughlv familiar with the
country and its inhabitants, advised the three members
stronglv to devote their first attention rather to the Median
ruins, Oppert himself proposing to explore the site of