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.
From the number of handsome apartments, the abundance of marble, and
the paintings and inscriptions upon it, the inference is drawn that
this spot contains the ruins of a royal palace.
A considerable quantity of marble slabs, with reliefs and cuneiform
inscriptions, were carefully detached from the walls and sent to
England. When I was at Bassora, a whole cargo of similar remains
lay near the Tigris, and among others a sphynx.
On our return we visited the village Nebbi Yunus, which is situated
on a slight eminence near the ruins. It is remarkable only on
account of a small mosque, which contains the ashes of the prophet
Jonas, and to which thousands of devotees make annual pilgrimages.
During this excursion we passed a number of fields, in which the
people were engaged in separating the corn from the straw in a very
peculiar manner.
