eglected in
Assyria, one hears much more of the magnificent palaces erected by the
kings than of temples and shrines. In fact, as compared with Babylonia,
Assyria was poor in the number of her temples. The chief sanctuaries to
which the Neo-Babylonian kings devoted themselves were, in the first
instance, E-sagila of Babylon and E-zida of Borsippa. Nebopolassar and
his successors are fond of giving themselves the title of 'beautifier of
E-Sagila and E-zida.' In these great temples sacred to Marduk and Nebo,
there were shrines to Sarpanitum, Tashmitum, Nusku, Ea and others, which
also engaged the energies of the rulers.

After Babylon came the old sanctuaries in the ancient religious centers
of the south,--the temples to Shamash and his consort at Sippar and
Larsa, the temples to Sin at Ur and Harran, to the old Ishtar or Anunit
at Agade, to Nana in Erech. Thirdly, the cities of Babylon and Borsippa,
to which the kings, especially Nebuchadnezzar, are deeply attached, were
enriched with many sanctuaries more or less imposing, sacred to a
variety of deities. So Shamash, Sin, Nin-makh,--_i.e._, the great lady,
or Ishtar,--Nin-khar-shag, Gula, also appearing as Nin-Karrak,[335] have
their temples in Babylon, while Ramman has one in Borsippa, and Gula no
less than three sanctuaries--perhaps only small chapels--in Borsippa.
Fourthly, there are sanctuaries of minor importance in other quarters of
Babylonia. Among these we find mention of the improvement of sanctuaries
to the local deity of Marad, whom Nebuchadnezzar simply calls
Lugal-Marada, _i.e._, king of Marad, to Bel-sarbi, or Shar-sarbi, in
Baz,--perhaps a title of Nergal,--to Nin-ib in Dilbat, to Ramman in
Kumari(?).

Most of these sanctuaries are referred to in the inscriptions of
Nebuchadnezzar--a circumstance which, in connection with the many other
gods whom he invokes on various occasions, points to a great revival of
ancient cults in his days. Some of these cults had never reached any
degree of importance prior to his time. Hence it happens that we come
across deities in his inscriptions of whom no mention is found
elsewhere. It is probable that such gods were purely local deities, some
of them, if not many, being at the same time personifications of the
powers or phenomena of nature, while others may be familiar gods,
masquerading under strange attributes. Unfortunately most of these gods
are written in ideographic fashion, so that we cannot be certain of the
rea