The ruins at Koyunjik, although similar in cha racter to those at Nimrini and Khorsabad, belong to edifices of greater extent and magnificence than are to be found at either place. The dimensions of the principal courts exceed those of any other Assyrian buildings. No less than seventy-one chambers were uncovered, which are panelled with bas-reliefs for an extent of nearly two miles, and twenty-seven entrances were excavated, which were flanked by colossal winged bulls or lion-sphynxes, although little more than half was explored.
The most ancient of the excavated edifices is the north-west palace of Nimnid, which was rebuilt or founded by Asshur-dan-pal, conjecturally the Sar danapalus of the Greeks, whose reign may be placed approximately at 950-92o B.C. The central palace was built by the son of this man Shalmanu bar, and rebuilt by his grandson Pul, the husband of Semiramis, who also founded a third. The next in order of date is that at Khorsabad, founded by Sargon about 725. The great palace at Koyun jik was founded by Sennacherib cir. 700 B.C. So also was that at Shereef Khan, five miles and a half north of Koyunjik, and the one at Nebbi Yunus. This last appears to have been finished by Esar haddon, who added another building at Nimtaid, and seems to have employed for this purpose ma terials taken from the palaces reared by other kings. The son of Esarhaddon either completed or enlarged the palace of his grandfather at Koy unjik, and added to that at Shereef Khan. The south-east palace at Nimrtid is also attributed to him.
The name of Nineveh is met with on Egyptian monuments of Thothmes III., cir. 1400 a king of the i8th dynasty, by some supposed to have been Joseph's Pharaoh. The early capital of the Assyrian empire appears to have been Kalah Sherghat. Sennacherib has been thought to have been the first to remove the seat of government from thence to Nineveh, which he raised from a state of ruin and almost rebuilt. It may be re marked, that if Nineveh was confined within the limits specified above, which are marked by the sites of the principal ruins, the vast space thus en closed was probably occupied with suburbs—gar dens, parks, temples, and the like ; in this re spect resembling Ispahan, Damascus, and other modern cities of the east. But whatever its extent really was, there can have been no walls like those described by Diodorus, or traces of them would surely have been found. It must, however, be borne in mind that the houses of the poorer part of the nation, being probably built of clay bricks and chopped straw dried in the sun, would rapidly de cay, whereas the masonry of sun-dried brick, when properly protected and buried, as it is in the As syrian remains, would defy the ravages of time ; thus the walls of the Nineveh palaces in many places were found to be as perfect as ever. Large quantities of cedar wood were found in some of the ruins, at Nimrtid for example, which at once illus trates and gives life to the prophetic words of Zephaniah : He shall* uncover the cedar work.' It seems, also, that with the Assyrians both palace and temple were combined in one edifice. No separate buildings, set apart for temples, as in Greece, have been discovered ; no traces of win dows have been detected, and the rooms must either have been lighted from above, or through the doors only, as is the case at the present day in Mosul and Baghdad, where, in order to avoid the heat, as little light is admitted as possible. Cur tains probably were hung before the apertures, and a device resorted to similar to the modern talar described and illustrated by Mr. Fergusson in the work quoted above, p. i30. The importance of Assyria in the ancient world must have been very great, and its influence is discernible even now. The Persians derived their religion and their archi tecture from the Assyrians, and there is no doubt that the Greeks borrowed their Ionic order from them also through Asia Minor and Ionia. The orna ments on Ionic monuments in Greece are often times purely Assyrian.
.Prophecy.—Allusion has already been made to the fulfilment of one part of Zephaniah's prophecy respecting Nineveh. The remainder of it is no less striking when we consider the present condition of the ruins which mark the site of the ancient city,— ' He will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria ; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations : both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it ; their voice shall sing in the windows ; desolation shall be in the thresholds.. . . This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me : how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in ! every one that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his hand' (ii. 13, 4, 15). Nahum may perhaps a] lude to the way in which Nineveh was destroyed, as described above, in i. 8—' With an overrunning
flood he will make an utter end of the place there of; ' and ii. 6, The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.' He refers to the final and complete character of the coming destruction, i. 9, He will make an utter end : affliction shall not rise up the second time ; ' and 14, The Lord hath given a command ment concerning thee that no more of thy name be sown ;' and iii. 19, There is no healing of thy bruise ; thy wound is grievous.' From i. to, it appears that security and its attendant evils of drunkenness and luxury had stupified the Ninevites. when the city was taken,—' While they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry ; ' and so from ver. 12, Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through ; ' and again, iii. Thou also shalt be drunken : thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy.' The total abolition of the idol-wor ship of the accursed city is spoken of, i. 14, Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image, and the molten image ; I will make thy grave ; for thou art vile.' With reference to ii. 3, The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet.' Layard remarks that the shields and raiment of the warriors are usually painted red in the sculptures, but it is possible that it may refer also to their being dyed with gore. • Nineveh is of old like a pool of water' (ii. 8), has been interpreted of the moats and clams that abounded in the district ; but then there seems to be no antithesis in yet shall they flee away.' May it not be rather, with an allusion indeed to the physi cal position of the place, a metaphor descriptive of the moral condition of its inhabitants, ordinarily and habitually settled on their lees—stagnant, inert, sluggish, and secure ; but yet when the time of de struction comes, so overborne by terror that, though they cry Stand, stand,' yet none' shall heed or look back' ? The vast riches and spoil taken in tne capture of the city are mentioned ii. 9 : Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold ; for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture ; ' and the result is that she is empty, and void, and waste.' It is singular, in illustration of this, that scarcely any fragments of gold and silver were found in the ruins. That the agency of fire should be conspicuous in the over throw of the city is predicted in iii. 13, 13 : The fire shall devour thy bars ;' There shall the fire devour thee.' And finally, that Nineveh should not fall without a struggle—though when despair came upon them the people in the midst of her should be women' (iii. r3)—is intimated ii. 3, 4, 5 The chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation. . . . . The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one another in the broad ways : they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings. He shall recount his worthies . . . the defence shall be prepared ; ' and iii. t4 : Draw thee waters for the siege, for tify thy strongholds : go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brick-kiln.' Mr. Rawlin son (Ancient Monarchies, ii. 279) thinks that the expression well-favoured harlot' refers to the li centious practices of Assyrian worship, but he ob serves at the same time that the religious emblems of the Assyrians are almost always free from that character of grossness which in the classical works of art so often offend modern delicacy.' The parabolic description of the Assyrian in Ezek. xxxi. is supposed by the same writer to re fer most appropriately to the time of Asshur-bani pal, the son and successor of Esarhaddon ; and the epithet of the bloody city' bestowed by Nahum on Nineveh answers fitly to the character which the sculptures would seem to attribute to him in common with other Assyrian monarchs (vol. ii. 504). The subject of the illustration supplied to Scripture by the manners and customs of the As syrians and their history, is so largely treated in the recent work of Mr. Rawlinson (vols. i. and ii.), that we cannot do better than refer the reader to that work. He will find it well-nigh exhausted there. Other sources of information on the general subject of this article, are the two works of Mr. Layard, Nineveh and Nineveh and Babylon ; the various essays and papers in Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. i. ; Botta's Letters in 7ournal Asiatique ; Sir H. Rawlinson in journal of Royal Asiatic Society; and the journal of Sacred Literature, July ; Felix Jones, Topography of Nineveh, journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 1855 ; the papers of Dr. Hincks in Royal Irish Academy, and of Sacred Literature ; and Mr. Fergusson's Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis restored.—S. L.