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

372 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
original and chief purpose.
Certain projections of the second
stage over this so-called causeway, 1 which are absent
from the other three sides of the pyramid, prove conclusively
that here we have the last remains of the ancient approach
to the top of the ziggurrat. A door-socket in dolerite
inscribed with the ordinary votive legend of Ur-Gur was
found at the foot of this stairway, while a stray soapstone
tablet of the same king came from a room of the Parthian
fortress considerably above it.
The excavation of the southwest and northeast facades
were no less important for our knowledge of the architectural
details of the ziggurrat. Both contained deep and wellbuilt
conduits in their centres, designed to carry the profuse
water of the Babylonian autumn and winter rains from the
higher stories over the foundations of the lowest encasement
walls into a gutter which surrounded all but the front sides
of the high-towering building. Loftus' so-called " buttresses
" of the Buweriye at Warka, " erected on the centre
of each side for the purpose of supporting the main edifice
" (comp. p.
146, above), are evidently nothing but such
water conduits, misunderstood by him, and the remains of
an entrance to the top of the tower. If we can rely upon
Haynes' examination, the southwest conduit was the exclusive
work of Ur-Gur, except at the bottom, where it
repeatedly been filled
had
and paved to discharge the water at a
higher level in accordance with the gradual rising of the
court below. The northeast conduit, on the other hand,
goes back only to Ashurbanapal, who repaired the conduit
of Kadashman-Turgu, placed over the older one of Ur-
Gur.
1
Haynes did not recognize the significance of these projections for the
whole question of the original ascent, but, substituting his lively fantasy again
for an accurate description, imagines that " a sacred shrine or altar may have
stood at the far end of the causeway," or " that the officiating priest may at
times have harangued the people in the great court below him from that
height." What a conception of a Babylonian temple !