The whole palace area is some 7i ac., of which about rd. is given over to the palace, the remainder being platform area containing the ziggurat and other ritual buildings ; but the palace was placed on the centre of the river front of a square enclosure containing the town, occupying, roughly, a square mile and surrounded by a fortified wall strengthened with towers at intervals. The court yard system is at once evident in the palace and there is more symmetry (or at least deliberate grandiose arrangement) than is apparent at first sight. It is also impossible to judge of the effect of such a work as this from a plan only and without taking into account the accessories of Assyrian architecture—the coloured tile decorations, the gigantic human-headed bulls or lions of the entries and, above all, the magnificent reliefs which are so evident from the show cases of the British Museum. For precision and delicacy of treatment, fine sense of design and mastery in the rendering of animal form, these reliefs can compare with the architectonic sculpture of any age. The entire absence of the column in all Mesopotamian buildings is noticeable.
The decorations of the palace were in the prevailing Baby lonian style of coloured and glazed tiles—lions, bulls, dragons, flower forms and formal patterns, executed with extraordinary verve and richness of colour. Inscriptions record that "the cham ber of Marduk, lord of the gods" was "furnished with shining gold" and that eight bronze serpents at the doorways were cov ered with silver. The Ishtar gate is in a remarkable state of
preservation and gives a clear indication of the character of the chains of towers that encircled the palace. The building activi ties of Nebuchadrezzar were continued by his successor Nabo nidus, who became a restorer of sacred sites in Chaldaea. He effected a great levelling up and rebuilding scheme at Ur.
The greatest ziggurat of Mesopotamia—the Birs m. S. of Babylon, was completely restored by Nebuchadrezzar. It was the more usual type which had its origin in early Chaldaea. Its irregular form facilitated ascending stepways between the stages. The whole intention was radically different from the tomb idea of the Egyptian step pyramid (see EGYPTIAN ARCHITEC TURE). The Mesopotamian ziggurat was a "mountain" built in solid stages having a shrine for the divinity at its summit.
Saturated with the idea of man's conflict with invisible powers, the art expression of Mesopotamia is remote from the humanistic thought of Greece and the modern world. Nevertheless, it con tained some forms of great importance in the history of archi tectural development. (I) The fortified walls with their square towers, especially at gateways, entered into the mediaeval use of Europe ; (2) the round pilaster strips of external walls reappear in the Sassanid palaces of the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D., as well as in the Romanesque churches of Italy; (3) lions or other carved pedestals as bases for columns also reappear in Italian Romanesque work; (4) the bronze bands of the gates of Shal maneser II. (86o in the British Museum) were so per fect that a very complete restoration of the gates is possible and they remain one of the finest examples extant of metal-craft on such a large scale before mediaeval times; (5) the magnifi cent output of glazed tile relief which, originating in Babylonia, was characteristic of Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian work, was translated into new forms by later Persian artists and became the greatest contribution of the Middle East to architectural deco ration; (6) lastly and most important of all there is the first use of the arch, vault and semi-dome—with all that is meant by that —anticipating the construction of Rome, not a few centuries but some 3,00o years later.