s. 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 wal