yal Library--was made at
Nineveh, from which the British Museum has derived perhaps the most
valuable of its treasures. Comparative vocabularies, lists of deities
and their epithets, chronological lists of kings and eponyms, records of
astronomical observations, grammars, histories, scientific works of
various kinds, seems to have been composed in the reign, and probably at
the bidding of this prince, who devoted to their preservation certain
chambers in the palace of his grandfather, where they were found by Mr.
Layard. The clay tablets on which they were inscribed lay here in such
multitudes in some instances entire, but more commonly broken into
fragments--that they filled the chambers _to the height of a foot or
more from the floor_. Mr. Layard observes with justice that "the
documents thus discovered at Nineveh probably exceed [in amount of
writing] all that has yet been afforded by the monuments of Egypt." They
have yielded of late years some most interesting results, and will
probably long continue to be a mine of almost inexhaustible wealth to
the cuneiform scholar.

As a builder, Asshur-bani-pal aspired to rival, if not even to excel,
the greatest of the monarchs who had preceded him. His palace was built
on the mound of Koyunjik, within a few hundred yards of the magnificent
erection of his grandfather, with which he was evidently not afraid to
challenge comparison. It was built on a plan unlike any adopted by
former kings. The main building consisted of three arms branching from
at common centre, and thus in its general shape resembled a gigantic T.
The central point was reached by a long ascending gallery lined with
sculptures, which led from a gateway, with rooms attached, at a corner
of the great court, first a distance of 190 feet in a direction parallel
to the top bar of the T, and then a distance of 80 feet in a direction
at right angles to this, which brought it down exactly to the central
point whence the arms branched. The entire building was thus a sort of
cross, with one long arm projecting from the top towards the left or
west. The principal apartments were in the lower limb of the cross. Here
was a grand hall, running nearly the whole length of the limb, at least
145 feet long by 28 feet broad, opening towards the east on a great
court, paved chiefly with the exquisite patterned slabs of which a
specimen has already been given, and communicating towards the west with
a number of smaller rooms, an