aces between the arches and were festooned by
flowering creepers. A broad stairway ascended from terrace to terrace.

The old palace stood in a square nearly four miles in circumference,
and was strongly protected by three walls, which were decorated by
sculptures in low relief, representing battle scenes and scenes of the
chase and royal ceremonies. Winged bulls with human heads guarded the
main entrance.

Another architectural feature of the city was E-sagila, the temple of
Bel Merodach, known to the Greeks as "Jupiter-Belus". The high wall
which enclosed it had gates of solid brass. "In the middle of the
precinct", wrote Herodotus, "there was a tower of solid masonry, a
furlong in length and breadth, upon which was raised a second tower,
and on that a third, and so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is
on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. When one
is about halfway up, one finds a resting-place and seats, where
persons are wont to sit some time on their way to the summit. On the
topmost tower there is a spacious temple, and inside the temple stands
a couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a golden table by its
side. There is no statue of any kind set up in the place, nor is the
chamber occupied of nights by anyone but a single native woman, who,
as the Chaldaeans, the priests of this god, affirm, is chosen for
himself by the deity out of all the women of the land."

A woman who was the "wife of Amon" also slept in that god's temple at
Thebes in Egypt. A similar custom was observed in Lycia.

"Below, in the same precinct," continued Herodotus, "there is a second
temple, in which is a sitting figure of Jupiter, all of gold. Before
the figure stands a large golden table, and the throne whereon it
sits, and the base on which the throne is placed, are likewise of pure
gold.... Outside the temple are two altars, one of solid gold, on
which it is only lawful to offer sucklings; the other, a common altar,
but of great size, on which the full-grown animals are sacrificed. It
is also on the great altar that the Chaldaeans burn the frankincense,
which is offered to the amount of a thousand talents' weight, every
year, at the festival of the god. In the time of Cyrus there was
likewise in this temple a figure of a man, twelve cubits high,
entirely of solid gold.... Besides the ornaments which I have
mentioned, there are a large number of private offerings in this holy
precinct."[266]

The city