CALAH (63 ; Sept. XaMx). In Gen. x. 11, 12, we read that Asshur went out of the land of Shinar, or, as the margin renders it, he (Nimrod) went out of the land of Shinar to Asshur, and blinded Nineveh and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah.' The Hebrew will scarcely bear the marginal reading ; but, however this may be, we learn that Calah was not far distant from Nineveh. These cities all lay within ancient As syria, which appears to have included the rich plain on both banks of the Tigris, between the mountains of Armenia on the north, and Babylonia on the south. Strabo mentions a province of Assyria called Calachene (G'ea.T. xi., p. 530; and xvi., p. 736), a name which may perhaps be derived from the old city of Calah.
Within the boundaries of Assyria proper theme are three great groups of mounds indicating the sites of ancient cities ; these are Kouyunjik opposite Mosul, Nimri1d, twenty miles farther south on the left bank of the Tigris, and Kalah-Shershat, forty miles south of the latter on the right bank of the river. It is now established beyond doubt that the mounds opposite Mosul mark the site of Nineveh. The name and the situation of .Ka/ah-Sherghat sug gest its identity with the ancient Calah. Resen was situated between Nineveh and Calah, and is in all probability the modern Nimrftd.
Rawlinson maintains that Calah was at Nimrild, chiefly on the authority of an inscription on the celebrated obelisk discovered at that place by Mr. Layard, and now in the British Museum (Vaux, Ninev. and Persep., p. 262, sq.) The names upon
these monuments cannot be accurately determined, and some eminent Assyrian scholars have questioned Rawlinson's views (Layard, Ninezz. and Bab., pp. 354, 639 ; Bonomi's Nizzeveh, pp. 99, sq., 3S9). The position of Nimrild does not answer to the notice given in the Bible. Resen was situated be tween Nineveh and Calah. If we locate Calah at Nimrftd, we do not leave sufficient space for Resen, which is described as a great city ; and there is not a trace of ruins in the district.
Kalah-Sherghat was one of the most ancient places in Assyria. On a cylinder discovered there is an inscription recording the fact, that the King Tiglath•pileser restored a monument which had been taken down sixty years previously, after hav ing stood for 641 years. It must, therefore, have been founded about B.C. I 870 (Rawlinson's Ilerodot., 457, ; Vaux, Nz'n. and Pers., p. 13). On the bricks and pottery found at Kalah are the names and titles of the earliest known Assyrian kings. The name Asshur is found among them. Rawlinson supposes this to be the old name of the city ; but may it not be that of its founder ? (Rawlinson, Herodot. i. 588, sq.) Kalah is situated on the right bank of the Tigris, in the midst of beautiful mea dows, which are abundantly watered by a small tributary stream. The mound is one of the largest in Assyria, measuring a quarter of a mile in circuit, and sixty feet in height (Bonomi's Nineveh, p. 103). J. L. P.