his time, it is difficult to speak positively. Though he
appears to have been one of the most indefatigable constructors of great
works that Assyria produced, having erected during the short period over
which his reign extended no fewer than four palaces and above thirty
temples, yet it happens unfortunately that we are not as yet in a
condition to pronounce a decisive judgment either on the plan of his
buildings or on the merits of their ornamentation of his three great
palaces, which were situated at Babylon, Calah, and Nineveh, one
only--that at Calah or Nimrud has been to any large extent explored.
Even in this case the exploration was far from complete, and the ground
plan of his palace is still very defective. But this is not the worst.
The palace itself had never been finished; its ornamentation had
scarcely been begun; and the little of this that was original had been
so damaged by a furious conflagration, that it perished almost at the
moment of discovery. We are thus reduced to judge of the sculptures of
Esar-haddon by the reports of those who saw them ere they fell to
pieces, and by one or two drawings, while we have to form our conception
of his buildings from a half-explored fragment of a half-finished
palace, which was moreover destroyed by fire before completion.

The palace of Esar-haddon at Calah was built at the south-western corner
of the Nimrud mound, abutting towards the west on the Tigris, and
towards the south on the valley formed by the Shor-Derreh torrent. It
faced northwards, and was entered on this side from the open space of
the platform, through a portal guarded by two winged bulls of the
ordinary character. The visitor on entering found himself in a large
court, 280 feet by 100, bounded on the north side by a mere wall, but on
the other three sides surrounded by buildings. The main building was
opposite to him, and was entered from the court by two portals, one
directly facing the great northern gate of the court, and the other a
little to the left hand, the former guarded by colossal bulls, the
latter merely reveted with slabs. These portals both led into the same
room--the room already described in an earlier page of this work--which
was designed on the most magnificent scale of all the Assyrian
apartments, but was so broken up through the inability of the architect
to roof in a wide space without abundant support, that, practically, it
formed rather a suite of four moderate-sized chamber