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

DURING 19 CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 173
gathered some inscribed seal cylinders on the surface, 1 by
2
Baillie Fraser (1835), and by Loftus (1850), who again
visited them shortly before he quitted Babylonia forever
1
(1854).'
But our real knowledge of the character and contents
of the ruins is
based upon the excavations of the firstnamed
explorer, who worked there in the beginning of
1854, and who opened a few additional trenches, in connection
with a second visit, about a year later.
Near the north end of the mounds stands the principal
building of the whole site, about seventy feet high. It is a
two-storied structure having the plan of a right-angled parallelogram,
the largest sides of which are the northeast and
southwest, being each 198 feet long, while the others measure
only 133 feet. As in all other similar Babylonian
buildings, one angle points almost due north. The lower
story, twenty-seven feet high, is supported by strong buttresses
;
the upper story, receding from thirty to forty-seven
feet from the edge of the first, is fourteen feet high, surmounted
by about five feet of brick rubbish. The ascent
to this remarkable stage-tower, perforated with numerous
air-holes, like those at 'Aqarquf and El-Birs, was on the
northeast side. By driving a tunnel into the very heart of
the mound, Taylor convinced himself first
that " the whole
building was built of sun-dried bricks in the centre, with a
1
Pietro della Valle (comp. p.
17, above) not onlvgave the correct etymology
of the name of the ruins, but recognized even the peculiar signs on the
bricks and seal cylinders as unbekannte and uhralte Buchstaben. Unter
anderen Buchstaben habe ich iher zzoeen an vielen Often wahrgenommen,
zvorunter der eine wie eine liegende Pyramid oder Flamm-saule (Tj>), der
andere aber wie ein Stem mit acht Strahlen ()(£•) — the sign for " God "
— gezvest. Comp. the German translation of his work, Reiss-Beschreibung,
Geneva, 1674, P art 4> P-
1 84,.
2
Comp. his "Travels in Koordistan, Mesopotamia," etc., vol. ii., pp.
90-94, and p. 5 5, above.
8
"Travels and Researches in Chaldaa and Susiana," pp. 127-135.
Comp., also, p. 141, above.