No systematic excavations were carried on until 1842, when P. C. Botta
was sent by the French government as vice-consul to Mosul on the upper
Tigris. He noticed across the river from Mosul extensive artificial
mounds which were supposed to mark the site of the city of Nineveh.
These so aroused his curiosity that he began digging in the two most
prominent mounds. Failing to make {113} any discoveries, he
transferred, the following year, at the suggestion of a peasant, his
activities to Korsabad, a few miles to the northeast, where the digging
produced, almost immediately, startling results. In the course of his
excavations he laid bare a complex of buildings which proved to be the
palace of Sargon, king of Assyria from B.C. 722 to B.C. 705, a palace
covering an area of about twenty-five acres. The walls of the various
buildings were all wainscotted with alabaster slabs, upon which were
representations of battles, sieges, triumphal processions, and similar
events in the life of ancient Assyria. He also found, in the course of
the excavations, scores of strange figures and colossi, and numerous
other remains of a long lost civilization. Botta's discoveries filled
the whole archaeological world with enthusiasm.

Even before Botta reached Mosul, a young Englishman, Austin Henry
Layard, visited the territory of ancient Assyria, and was so impressed
by its mounds and ruins that he resolved to examine them thoroughly
whenever it might be in his power to do so. This resolution was taken
in April, 1840, but more than five years elapsed before he began
operations. It would be interesting to follow Layard's work as
described by him in a most fascinating manner in Nineveh and Its
Remains, and other writings, which give {114} complete records of the
wonderful successes he achieved wherever he went.

Never again did the labors entirely cease, though there were periods of
decline. Layard's operations were continued under the direction of
Rassam, Taylor, Loftus, and Henry C. Rawlinson; the French operations
were in charge of such men as Place, Thomas, Fresnell, and Oppert.
However, it was not until 1873 that other startling discoveries were
made, chiefly under the direction of George Smith, who was sent by the
Daily Telegraph, of London, to visit the site of Nineveh for the
purpose of finding, if possible, fragments of the Babylonian account of
the Deluge, parts of which he had previously discovered on tablets that
had been s