It is surrounded by fortified works, and
contains 25,000 inhabitants, among which there are scarcely twelve
Europeans. The bazaars are extensive, but not in the least degree
handsome; between them lie several coffee-stalls and some chans. I
found the entrances to all the houses narrow, low, and furnished
with strong gates. These gates are relics of former times, when the
people were always in danger from the attacks of enemies. In the
interiors, there are very beautiful court-yards, and lofty, airy
rooms, with handsome entrances and bow-windows. The doors and
window-frames, the stairs and walls of the ground-floor rooms, are
generally made of marble; though the marble which is used for these
purposes is not very fine, yet it still looks better than brick
walls. The quarry lies close to the town.
Here also the hot part of the day is passed in the sardabs. The
heat is most terrible in the month of July, when the burning simoom
not unfrequently sweeps over the town. During my short stay at
Mosul, several people died very suddenly; these deaths were ascribed
to the heat. Even the sardabs do not shelter people from continual
perspiration, as the temperature rises as high as 97 degrees 25'
Fah.
The birds also suffer much from the heat: they open their beaks
wide, and stretch their wings out far from their bodies.
The inhabitants suffer severely in their eyes; but the Aleppo boils
are not so common as in Baghdad, and strangers are not subject to
them.
I found the heat very oppressive, but in other respects was very
well, especially as regards my appetite: I believe that I could
have eaten every hour of the day. Probably this was in consequence
of the hard diet which I had been obliged to endure on my journey.
The principal thing worth seeing at Mosul is the palace, about half
a mile from the town. It consists of several buildings and gardens,
surrounded with walls which it is possible to see over, as they lie
lower than the town. It presents a very good appearance from a
distance, but loses on nearer approach. In the gardens stand
beautiful groups of trees, which are the more valuable as they are
the only ones in the whole neighbourhood.
During my stay at Mosul, a large number of Turkish troops marched
through. The Pasha rode out a short distance to receive them, and
then returned to the town at the head of the foot regiments. The
cavalry remained behind, and encamped in tents along the banks of
the Tigris. I found these troops incomparably better clothed and
equipped than those which I had seen, in 1842, at Constantinople.
Their uniform consisted of white trousers, blue cloth spencers, with
red facings, good shoes, and fez.
As soon as I was in some degree recovered from the fatigue of my
late journey, I requested my amiable host to furnish me with a
servant who should conduct me to the ruins of Nineveh; but instead
of a servant, the sister of Mrs. Rassam and a Mr. Ross accompanied
me. One morning we visited the nearest ruins on the other side of
the Tigris, at the village Nebbi Yunus opposite the town; and, on
another day, those called Tel-Nimroud, which are situated at a
greater distance, about eighteen miles down the river.
According to Strabo, Nineveh was still larger than Babylon. He
represents it as having been the largest city in the world. The
journey round it occupied three days. The walls were a hundred feet
high, broad enough for three chariots abreast, and defended by
fifteen hundred towers. The same authority states that the Assyrian
king Ninus was the founder, about 2,200 years before the birth of
Christ.
The whole is now covered with earth, and it is only when the
peasants are ploughing, that fragments of brick or marble are here
and there turned up. Long ranges of mounds, more or less high,
extending over the immeasurable plain on the left bank of the
Tigris, are known to cover the remains of this town.
In the year 1846, the Trustees of the British Museum sent the
erudite antiquarian, Mr. Layard, to undertake the excavations. It
was the first attempt that had ever been made, and was very
successful. {268}
Several excavations were made in the hills near Nebbi Yunus, and
apartments were soon reached whose walls were covered with marble
slabs wrought in relief. These represented kings with crowns and
jewels, deities with large wings, warriors with arms and shields,
the storming of fortifications, triumphal processions, and hunting
parties, etc. They were unfortunately deficient in correct drawing,
proportions, or perspective; the mounds and fortifications were
scarcely three times as high as the besiegers; the fields reached to
the clouds; the trees and lotus flowers could scarcely be
distinguished from each other; and the heads of men and animals were
all alike, and only in profile. On many of the walls were found
those wedge-shaped characters, or letters, which constitute what are
called cuneiform inscriptions, and are found only on Persian and
Babylonian monuments.
Among all the rooms and apartments which were brought to light,
there was only one in which the walls were covered with fine cement
and painted; but, notwithstanding the greatest care, it was not
possible to preserve this wall. When it came in contact with the
air, the cement cracked and fell off. The marble also is partially
converted into lime, or otherwise injured, in consequence of the
terrible conflagration which laid the city in ruins. The bricks
fall to pieces when they are dug out.
