a real feature in Assyrian building is here
represented M. Place found the arch of the town gateway which he exhumed
at Khorsabad to spring from the backs of the two bulls which guarded it
on either side. Thus the lions at the base of the pillars may be real
architectural forms, as well as the winged bulls which support the
pilasters. The lion was undoubtedly a sacred animal, emblematic of
divine power, and especially assigned to Nergal, the Assyrian Mars, the
god at once of war and of hunting. His introduction on the exteriors of
buildings was common in Asia Minor but no other example occurs of his
being made to support a pillar, excepting in the so-called Byzantine
architecture of Northern Italy.

[Illustration: PLATE 49]

[Illustration: PLATE 50]

[Illustration: PLATE 51]

[Illustration: PLATE 52]

No. VII. _a_ [PLATE LII., Fig. 1] introduces us to another kind of
Assyrian temple, or perhaps it should rather be said to another feature
of Assyrian temples--common to them with Babylonian--the tower or
ziggurat. This appears to have been always built in stages, which
probably varied in number--never, how-ever, so far as appears, exceeding
seven. The sculptured example before us, which is from a bas-relief
found at Koyunjik, distinctly exhibits four stages, of which the
topmost, owing to the destruction of the upper portion of the tablet, is
imperfect. It is not unlikely that in this instance there was above the
fourth a fifth stage, consisting of a shrine like that which at Babylon
crowned the great temple of Belus. The complete elevation would then
have been nearly as in No. VII. _b_. [PLATE XLI., Fig. 3.]

The following features are worth of remark in this temple. The basement
story is panelled with indented rectangular recesses, as was the ease at
Nimrud [PLATE LIII.] and at the Birs the remainder are plain, as are
most of the stages in the Birs temple. Up to the second of these squared
recesses on either side there runs what seems to be a road or path,
which sweeps away down the hill whereon the temple stands in a bold
curve, each path closely matching the other. The whole building is
perfectly symmetrical, except that the panelling is not quite uniform in
width nor arranged quite regularly. On the second stage, exactly in the
middle, there is evidently a doorway, and on either side of it a shallow
buttress or pilaster. In the centre of the third story, exactly over the
doorway of the second, is a squared nic