mite dynasty had its royal necropolis near Susa, in which
funerary rites were celebrated down to the moment of the Assyrian conquest,
it could hardly have been otherwise with the powerful and pious monarchies
of Chaldaea. History has in fact preserved a few traditions of the royal
sepulchres of that country. Herodotus mentions the tomb of that Queen
Nitocris to whom he attributes so many great works;[447] it is supposed
that she was an Egyptian princess and the wife of Nabopolassar. According
to the historian she caused a sepulchral chamber to be constructed for
herself in the walls of Babylon, above one of the principal gates. So far
as the terms of the inscription are concerned he may have been hoaxed by
the native dragomans, but there is nothing to rouse our scepticism in the
fact of a tomb having been contrived in the thickness of the wall. At
Sinkara Loftus discovered two corbel-vaulted tombs imbedded in a mass of
masonry which had apparently served as basement to a temple rebuilt by
Nebuchadnezzar.[448]

Some of the Babylonian princes, however, were buried in that part of the
Chaldaean territory that was inclosed by the Euphrates and Tigris and
contained most of the cemeteries of which we have been speaking. According
to Arrian, Alexander, on his way back from Lake Pallacopas, passed close to
the tomb of one of the ancient kings, "They say," adds the historian, "that
most of the former kings of Assyria were buried among the lakes and
swamps."[449]

[Illustration: FIG. 167.--Map of the ruins of Mugheir; from Taylor.

H, H, H, H, circumference of 2,946 yards; _a_, platform of house; _b_,
pavement at edge of platform; _c_, tomb mound; _d, e, g, h, k, l, m_,
points at which excavations were made; _f, f, f, f_, comparatively open
space with very low mounds; _n, n_, graves; _o_, the great two-storied
ruin.]

Loftus suggests that these royal tombs should be sought at Warka, but he
found no ruin to which any such character could be certainly assigned. The
only mention of a royal Assyrian tomb in history is of a kind that tells us
nothing. "Semiramis," says Diodorus, "buried Ninus within the boundary
walls of the palace, she raised a mound of extraordinary size over his
tomb; Ctesias says it was nine stades high and ten wide. The town
stretching to the middle of the plain, near the Euphrates,[450] the
funerary mound was conspicuous at many stades' distance like an acropolis;
they tell me that it still exists although Ni