n a third of a mile, was the royal
quarter, or portion of the city occupied by the palaces of the kings. It
consisted of a raised platform, forty feet above the level of the plain,
composed in some parts of rubbish, in others of regular layers of
sun-dried bricks, and cased on every side with solid stone masonry,
containing an area of sixty English acres, and in shape almost a regular
rectangle, 560 yards long, and from 350 to 450 broad. The platform was
protected at its edges by a parapet, and is thought to have been
ascended in various places by wide staircases, or inclined ways, leading
up from the plain. The greater part of its area is occupied by the
remains of palaces constructed by various native kings, of which a more
particular account will be given in the chapter on the architecture and
other arts of the Assyrians. It contains also the ruins of two small
temples, and abuts at its north-western angle on the most singular
structure which has as yet been discovered among the remains of the
Assyrian cities. This is the famous tower or pyramid which looms so
conspicuously over the Assyrian plams, and which has always attracted
the special notice of the traveller. [PLATE XXIV., Fig. 2.] An exact
description of this remarkable edifice will be given hereafter.

It appears from the inscriptions on its bricks to have been commenced by
one of the early kings, and completed by another. Its internal structure
has led to the supposition that it was designed to be a place of burial
for one or other of these monarchs. Another conjecture is, that it was a
watch-tower; but this seems very unlikely, since no trace of any mode
by which it could be ascended has been discovered.

Forty miles below Calah, on the opposite bank of the Tigris, was a third
great city, the native name of which appears to have been Asshur. This
place is represented by the ruins at Kileh-Sherghat, which are scarcely
inferior in extent to those at Nimrud or Calah. It will not be necessary
to describe minutely this site, as in general character it closely
resembles the other ruins of Assyria. Long lines of low mounds mark the
position of the old walls, and show that the shape of the city was
quadrangular. The chief object is a large square mound or platform, two
miles and a half in circumference, and in places a hundred feet above
the level of the plain, composed in part of sun-dried bricks, in part
of natural eminences, and exhibiting occasionally remains o