in
comparison with the dwellings of their kings, to which indeed the temple
is most commonly a sort of appendage. In the palace their art
culminates--there every effort is made, every ornament lavished. If the
architecture of the Assyrian palaces be fully considered, very little
need be said on the subject of their other buildings.

The Assyrian palace stood uniformly on an artificial platform. Commonly
this platform was composed of sun-dried-bricks in regular layers; but
occasionally the material used was merely earth or rubbish, excepting
towards the exposed parts--the sides and the surface which were always
either of brick or of stone. In most cases the sides were protected by
massive stone masonry, carried perpendicularly from the natural ground
to a height somewhat exceeding that of the plat-form, and either made
plain at the top or else crowned with stone battlements cut into
gradines. The pavement consisted in part of stone slabs, part of
kiln-dried bricks of a large size, often as much as two feet square. The
stone slabs were sometimes inscribed, sometimes ornamented with an
elegant pattern. (See [PLATE XLI., Fig. 2.]) Occasionally the terrace
was divided into portions at different elevations, which were connected
by staircases or inclined planes. The terrace communicated in the same
way with the level ground at its base, being (as is probable) sometimes
ascended in a single place, sometimes in several. These ascents were
always on the side where the palace adjoined upon the neighboring town,
and were thus protected from hostile attack by the town walls. [PLATE
XLI., Fig. 1] Where the palace abutted upon the walls or projected
beyond them--and the palace was always placed at the edge of a town, for
the double advantage, probably, of a clear view and of fresh air--the
platform rose perpendicularly or nearly so; and generally a water
protection, a river, a moat, or a broad lake, lay at its base, thus
rendering attack, except on the city side, almost impossible.

[Illustration: PLATE 41]

The platform appears to have been, in general shape, a rectangle, or
where it had different elevations, to have been composed of a
rectangles. The mound of Khorsabad, which is of this latter character,
resembles a gigantic T. [PLATE XLII., Fig. 1.]

[Illustration: PLATE 42]

It must not be supposed, however, that the rectangle was always exact.
Sometimes its outline was broken by angular projections and
indentations, as in t