Identifier: thronespalacesof00newm (find matches)
Title: The thrones and palaces of Babylon and Ninevah from sea to sea; a thousand miles on horseback ..
Year: 1876 (1870s)
Authors: Newman, John Philip, 1826-1899
Subjects: Babylonia -- Description and travel Iraq -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York, Harper & brothers
Contributing Library: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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he days of yore. Slowly the day dawned; the sunrose above the dense fog; and, after a ride of seven hours,we reached the great mounds of Kuyunjik. Around us were the ruins of the grand palaces of Sen-nacherib and of Sardanapalus, whose names are recordedin the sacred annals, and whose deeds fill so large aspace in the history of the Eastern world. We were ona fertile plain, dotted with the gardens and cottages ofthe poor, and traversed by the great caravan road lead-ing to Kurdistan on the north-east, and to Aleppo andthe sea on the north-west. Two immense mounds ofruins are less than a mile from the Tigris, and directlyopposite Mosul. Between them flows the river Khaus-ser, which issues from the hills of Makloub and emptiesinto the Tigris. In the dry season it is small and slug-gish, but at other times it is an impetuous torrent, andhas worn for itself a deep and broad bed. It is nowspanned by a modern brick bridge, beneath which theswollen stream rushed with unwonted force. It is an
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BABYLON AND NINEVEH. 289 ancient river, and occupies the channel through which itflowed when Sennacherib was king of all Assyria. Butit is evident, both from historic records and the richalluvium deposited on the plain, that the Tigris hasgradually retreated to its present bed. Once it flowedalong the city wall on the west, and was a section, withthe Khausser and two artificial canals, of the deep moatthat encompassed this portion of Nineveh. To the eastof the great mounds are the remains of the ancient wall,and in it is a deep cut for the modern caravan road,and through which the telegraph extends to Mosul, andthence to Constantinople. It is estimated that the cir-cuit of the walls was eight miles, and the area inclosedw^as about two thousand acres. Of the grand gate-waysonly one remains to reflect its original grandeur. It isthe north-west gate of the city, through which Sennach-erib and his hosts had often gone forth to battle, andreturned crowned with victory, laden with spoil, an

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