d become uninhabitable.
Assur-nazir-pal not only razed to the ground the palaces and temples,
but also levelled the mound on which they had been built; he then
cleared away the soil down to the water level, and threw up an immense
and almost rectangular terrace on which to lay out his new buildings.

[Illustration: 068.jpg STELE OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL AT CALAH]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Mansell.

The king chose Ninip, the god of war, as the patron of the city, and
dedicated to him, at the north-west corner of the terrace, a ziggurat
with its usual temple precincts. Here the god was represented as a bull
with a man's head and bust in gilded alabaster, and two yearly feasts
were instituted in his honour, one in the month Sebat, the other in the
month Ulul. The ziggurat was a little over two hundred feet high,
and was probably built in seven stages, of which only one now remains
intact: around it are found several independent series of chambers and
passages, which may have been parts of other temples, but it is now
impossible to say which belonged to the local Belit, which to Sin, to
Gula, to Ramman, or to the ancient deity Ra. At the entrance to the
largest chamber, on a rectangular pedestal, stood a stele with rounded
top, after the Egyptian fashion. On it is depicted a figure of the king,
standing erect and facing to the left of the spectator; he holds his
mace at his side, his right hand is raised in the attitude of adoration,
and above him, on the left upper edge of the stele, are grouped the five
signs of the planets; at the base of the stele stands an altar with
a triangular pedestal and circular slab ready for the offerings to be
presented to the royal founder by priests or people. The palace extended
along the south side of the terrace facing the town, and with the river
in its rear; it covered a space one hundred and thirty-one yards in
length and a hundred and nine in breadth. In the centre was a large
court, surrounded by seven or eight spacious halls, appropriated
to state functions; between these and the court were many rooms of
different sizes, forming the offices and private apartments of the
royal house. The whole palace was built of brick faced with stone. Three
gateways, flanked by winged, human-headed bulls, afforded access to the
largest apartment, the hall of audience, where the king received his
subjects or the envoys of foreign powers.* The doorways and walls of
some of the ro