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

DURING 19TB CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 483
doubtless represents the principal entrance of the latter,
two gates have been found in connection with our explorations
around the stage-tower, the large southeast one, which
connects the two courts, and another smaller one, which
leads from the rear of the ziggurrat into the large open
space to the northwest of the temple. The axis of the rear
gate, which is nearly seventeen feet distant from the lower
face of Imgarsag, is in line with the front gate. Though
only one corner of the former has as yet been uncovered, it
suffices to show that its construction was similar to the one
in
front of the ziggurrat.
The southeast wall, which contained the principal gate of
the temple, exhibits the same general characteristic features
as the fragment of wall from the time of Gudea, which De
Sarzec discovered beneath the Seleucidan palace at Tello,
with the exception that the wall around Ekur was constructed
entirely of unbaked material, while
the much less
imposing one of the temple of Ningirsu consisted of baked
bricks. To judge from the excavated southeast section,
the interior face of the wall at Nippur, into which a number
of store-rooms were built, was plain and without any
ornamentation, while the monotony of the long exterior surface
was relieved by a series of panels. 1
On an average these
panels measured about 16 feet in width, and were separated
from each other by shallow buttresses projecting one foot
from the wall, and 9 to 10 feet wide. The gate, which occupied
nearly the centre of this wall, was a very elaborate affair,
considering that its plan and general disposition, similar to
that of the city gates of the Assyrian kings discovered at
Khorsabad and Nineveh, go back to the time of Sargon of
Agade. 2 It was 52 feet long and nearly as wide, and was
1
Comp. the zinctype, p. 470, above, and " Ekur, the Temple of Bel"
(restored)
2
below.
Traces of a crude brick pavement of the period prior to Ur-Gur were
discovered at the bottom of the gate walls. In the same proportion as the