most open to attack; he repaired or completed the defences of
Kaksi, to command the plain between the Greater and Lesser Zab and the
Tigris; he rebuilt the castles or towers which guarded the river-fords
and the entrances to the valleys of the Gebel Makhlub, and erected at
Calah the fortified palace which his successors continued to inhabit for
the ensuing five hundred years.

Assur-nazir-pal had resided at Nineveh from the time of his accession to
the throne; from thence he had set out on four successive campaigns, and
thither he had returned at the head of his triumphant troops, there he
had received the kings who came to pay him homage, and the governors
who implored his help against foreign attacks; thither he had sent
rebel chiefs, and there, after they had marched in ignominy through the
streets, he had put them to torture and to death before the eyes of
the crowd, and their skins were perchance still hanging nailed to the
battlements when he decided to change the seat of his capital. The
ancient capital no longer suited his present state as a conqueror; the
accommodation was too restricted, the decoration too poor, and probably
the number of apartments was insufficient to house the troops of women
and slaves brought back from his wars by its royal master. Built on
the very bank of the Tebilti, one of the tributaries of the Khusur,
and hemmed in by three temples, there was no possibility of its
enlargement--a difficulty which often occurs in ancient cities. The
necessary space for new buildings could only have been obtained by
altering the course of the stream, and sacrificing a large part of the
adjoining quarters of the city: Assur-nazir-pal therefore preferred to
abandon the place and to select a new site where he would have ample
space at his disposal.

[Illustration: 067.jpg THE MOUNDS OF CALAH]

Drawn by Boudier, from Layard. The pointed mound on the left
near the centre of the picture represents the ziggurat of
the great temple.

He found what he required close at hand in the half-ruined city of
Calah, where many of his most illustrious predecessors had in times past
sought refuge from the heat of Assur. It was now merely an obscure and
sleepy town about twelve miles south of Nineveh, on the right bank of
the Tigris, and almost at the angle made by the junction of this river
with the Greater Zab. The place contained a palace built by Shalmaneser
I., which, owing to many years' neglect, ha