r halls at Kouyunjik could have been covered
in. The great hall, or house, as it is rendered in the Bible, of the
forest of Lebanon was thirty cubits high, upon four rows of cedar
pillars with cedar beams upon the pillars. The Assyrian kings, as we
have seen, cut wood in the same forests as King Solomon; and probably
used it for the same purpose, namely, for pillars, beams and ceilings.
The dimensions of this hall, 100 cubits (about 150 feet) by 50 cubits
(75 feet), very much resemble those of the center halls of the palaces
of Nineveh. "The porch of pillars" was fifty cubits in length; equal,
therefore, to the breadth of the hall, of which, we presume, it was a
kind of inclosed space at the upper end, whilst "the porch for the
throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment * * * *
covered with cedar wood from one side of the floor to the other," was
probably a raised place within it, corresponding with a similar
platform where the host and guests of honor are seated in a modern
Eastern house. Supposing the three parts of the building to have been
arranged as we have suggested, we should have an exact counterpart of
them in the hall of audience of the Persian palaces. The upper part of
the magnificent hall in which we have frequently seen the governor of
Isfahan, was divided from the lower part by columns, and his throne
was a raised place of carved headwork adorned with rich stuffs, ivory,
and other precious materials. Suppliants and attendants stood outside
the line of pillars, and the officers of the court within. Such also
may have been the interior arrangements of the great halls in the
Assyrian edifices.

We have already described the interior decorations of the Assyrian
palaces, and have little more to add upon the subject. The walls of
Kouyunjik were more elaborately decorated than those of Nimroud and
Khorsabad. Almost every chamber explored there, and they amounted to
about seventy, was paneled with alabaster slabs carved with numerous
figures and with the minutest details. Each room appears to have been
dedicated to some particular event, and in each, apparently, was the
image of the king himself. In fact, the walls recorded in sculpture
what the inscriptions did in writing--the great deeds of Sennacherib
in peace as well as in war. It will be remarked that, whilst in other
Assyrian edifices the king is frequently represented taking an active
part in war, slaying his enemies, and fighting beneath a b