ns of such
chambers in the palace of Assurnazirpal at Nimroud.[234] In the bas-relief
from Kouyundjik, reproduced in our Fig. 39, an open gallery may be noticed
at a great height above the soil. But neither this gallery nor the chambers
discovered at Nimroud form what we should call a "first-floor." Layard did
not conduct his excavations like an architect, and he fails to give us such
information as we have in the case of Khorsabad, but he tells us that the
chambers in question formed the upper part of a sort of tower projecting
from one angle of the facade. In the building represented on the Kouyundjik
relief, the gallery is also upheld by the main wall, and stands upon its
summit. From these observations we may conclude that when the Assyrian
architect wished to erect chambers that should have a command over the
buildings about them and over the surrounding country, he placed them, not
over his ground-floor, but upon solid and independent masses of bricks.

The staircase, then, could not have had the internal importance by which it
is distinguished in architectural systems that make use of several stories.
On the other hand, it must have played a very conspicuous part externally,
in front of the outer doors and the facades through which they were
pierced. Fortresses, palaces, temples, all the great buildings of Chaldaea
and Assyria, were built upon artificial mounds, upon a wide platform that
required an easy communication with the plain below. This could only be
obtained by long flights of steps or by gently inclined planes. Steps would
do for pedestrians, but horses, chariots, and beasts of burden generally
would require the last-named contrivance. All who have attempted
restorations have copied the arrangement of these stairs and sloping roads
from the ruins of Persepolis, where the steps, being cut in the rock
itself, are still to be traced. The brick slopes of Mesopotamia must have
commenced to disappear on the very day that their custodians first began to
neglect their repair.

Some confirmation, however, is to be found, even in the buildings
themselves, of the hypothesis suggested by their situations. At
Abou-Sharein, for instance, in Lower Chaldaea, the staircase figured on the
next page (Fig. 66) may be seen at the foot of the building excavated by
Mr. Taylor; it gave access to the upper terrace of what seems to have been
a temple.[235] Here the steps are no more than about twenty-six inches
wide, but this wi