of which the thicker one on the west replaced the older and narrower one
(ÄG) (Fig. 81); they cannot therefore both have been standing at the
same time. In the upper courses of the thicker wall (GI, cf. fig. 82)
there is a large number of bricks placed closely together, all of which
bear the following inscription (Fig. 83): “Nebuchadnezzar, King of
Babylon, the exalted prince, the nourisher of Esagila and Ezida, son of
Nabopolassar, King of Babylon, am I. Since Nabopolassar, my father, my
begetter, made Imgur-Bel the great Dûr of Babylon, I, the fervent
suppliant, worshipper of the Lord of lords, dug its fosses and raised
its banks of asphalt and baked bricks mountain high. Marduk, great Lord,
behold with contentment the costly work of my hands, mayest thou be my
helper, my standbye! Length of days send as a gift” (trans. by
Delitzsch). Here then we have the slope, the escarpment of the most
celebrated and earliest fortification of Babylon that bore the name of
Imgur-Bel, “grace of Bel.” Nebuchadnezzar explicitly refers to an
Imgur-Bel that was built by Nabopolassar. This Imgur-Bel of Nabopolassar
no longer exists, with the exception possibly of some fragmentary
remains, but we have a foundation record of Nabopolassar that concerns
it. The cylinder, which is small and in excellent condition, was found
in the Southern Citadel (_u_ 22) close to the Citadel wall, in rubbish
south of the Vaulted Building, and therefore not _in situ_. The text on
it runs: “Nabopolassar, King of Babylon, the chosen of Nabu and Marduk,
am I. Imgur-Bel, the great Dûr of Babylon, which before me had become
weak and fallen, I founded in the primeval abyss. I built it anew with
the help of the hosts, the levies of my land. I caused Babylon to be
enclosed by it towards the four winds of heaven. I set up its top as in
the former time. Dûr, speak to Marduk my Lord on my behalf” (trans. by
Delitzsch). From this it appears that the Imgur-Bel of Nabopolassar
formed a quadrilateral, closed on all sides, and that it was constructed
of burnt brick, as the deep foundations would be neither necessary nor
possible for crude brick. The old part of the eastern city wall may thus
have formed a portion of the Imgur-Bel of Nabopolassar. The wall of the
moat unites on the south with the Citadel wall by a grooved expansion
joint, but the groove is cut in the moat wall, which originally extended
farther to the south and is older than the Citadel wall at this point.
In the north it turns in an easterly direction, and the corner is marked
by an immense bastion. On the outer side in the angle of the bastion
there are two well shafts hewn out of the brickwork, the openings closed
with a grating of pierced stone slabs.
Farther to the north the wall is still buried under the rubbish as far
as its eastern termination, where it starts again from another great
outstanding bastion to the north of the Ishtar Gate, and there rests
against the exactly similarly constructed bastion of the older moat
wall.
This older moat wall runs on almost the same lines as the later one, but
somewhat within it. Like the latter it is laid with asphalt and reeds,
but has smaller unstamped bricks, measuring 32 × 32 centimetres. In the
trench near the Persian building we found it at a great depth, and
excavated the northern portion of it with the corner bastion, in the
angle of which is a well, this time a walled one. A tablet that referred
to the construction of this well was found close by. The wall rests on a
broad foundation banquette, and stretches in an easterly direction,
ending with a substantial tower at the Arachtu wall of Nabopolassar, and
reappearing at the Ishtar Gate with the above-mentioned outstanding
bastion. Here we can recognise a later addition, a raising of the wall,
for the strengthening of which powerful beams are jointed in. The lower
part has a slight batter, and was later washed over with asphalt, like
the walls of Nabopolassar’s palace, which we have already described.
In the well-built but not deeply-founded cross wall, between the bastion
and the Ishtar Gate, a broad doorway with a flight of steps led down
westward from the level of the earlier Procession Street.
It is possible that the bastions were symmetrically repeated on the
other side of the street, but the site has not yet been excavated.
XXII
THE ARACHTU WALL OF NABOPOLASSAR AND THE WALL OF SARGON THE ASSYRIAN.
North-west of the palace of Nabopolassar, and deep below the three
fortification walls which here lie in front of the Southern Citadel,
there are the remains of four ancient walls, the discovery of which has
been of great importance for the topography of Babylon. All four are the
rounded-off corners—if we may call them so—of quay walls which slope
sharply on their north and west fronts. All four are built with a lavish
number of stamped and inscribed bricks, so that no doubt whatever can
exist as to their use and name.
Each of these quay walls represents a rebuilding of the one behind it,
and indicates a thrusting forward of the quay front to the north and
west. They consist of good burnt brick, and are for the most part laid
in pure asphalt (section on Fig. 87).
The wall of Sargon is the thickest, but with its crown it only attains a
height of .27 metres below zero, where it is covered over with a thick
layer of asphalt. Above this burnt brick has never been laid, crude
brick may have been, but there is nothing to show it. Where the wall
abuts on the line of the Southern Citadel it is cut away to make room
for the new building. The corner is formed of a circular projecting
bastion. In one special course of the front of the bastion, as well as
of the straight extent of the wall, in one continuous row, there are
inscribed bricks (Fig. 86) with the following legend: “To Marduk! the
great Lord, the divine creator who inhabits Esagila, the Lord of Babil,
his lord; Sargon the mighty king, King of the land of Assur, King of
all, Governor of Babil, King of Sumer and Akkad, the nourisher of
Esagila and Ezida. To build Imgur-Bel was his desire: he caused burnt
brick of pure kirû to be struck, built a kâr with tar and asphalt on the
side of the Ishtar Gate to the bank of the Euphrates in the depth of the
water (?), and founded Imgur-Bel and Nimitti-Bel mountain high, firm
upon it. This work may Marduk, the great lord, graciously behold and
grant Sargon, the prince who cherishes him, life! Like the foundation
stone of the sacred city may the years of his reign endure” (trans. by
Delitzsch).
[Illustration:
FIG. 86.—Inscribed brick from the Sargon wall.
]
The two great fortifications of Imgur-Bel and Nimitti-Bel, so far as
Sargon marks them out as his work, are no longer to be recognised. They
must have been destroyed by the buildings of Nabopolassar and
Nebuchadnezzar on the Southern Citadel. These cannot, however, have
stood exactly over our wall, which is only 8 metres broad. Two ordinary
fortification walls, such as the two mud walls which stand here above
the walls of Sargon, with their intermediate space of one metre filled
in with rubbish, occupy with the outer spring of their towers a breadth
of 23 metres. Thus they must have lain behind, and Sargon’s wall must
have served practically to protect the bank, exactly as we have already
observed in the moat wall of Imgur-Bel.
[Illustration:
FIG. 87.—Section through fortification walls north of the Southern
Citadel.
A1 Arachtu wall of Nabopolassar, 1st period.
A3 Arachtu wall of Nabopolassar, 3rd period.
AG Older moat wall.
GI Moat wall of Imgur-Bel.
NL Northern mud wall.
NS Northern wall of the Southern Citadel.
PZ Parallel intermediate wall.
R Ruins of an older mud-brick wall.
S Sargon wall.
SL Southern mud-brick wall.
]
It is an important point that Sargon mentions the position of his wall:
on the side of the Ishtar Gate to the bank of the Euphrates. This shows
that in Sargon’s time the Euphrates flowed here.
[Illustration:
FIG. 88.—Stamped brick of Nabopolassar’s Arachtu wall.
]
The Nabopolassar inscriptions on the bricks of his wall that directly
adjoins the Sargon wall are, some of them stamped, some chiselled, and
some written. They are, however, placed without any sort of method,
mixed together in close proximity in all three periods of the wall. In
the stamped legend (Fig. 88) the king states that he had bright burnt
bricks struck, and with them made the wall of the Arachtu. Thus in the
time of Nabopolassar the Arachtu must have flowed here, and indeed at
exactly the same place where, according to the Sargon bricks, the
Euphrates flowed. The difficulties raised by this circumstance, as well
as by a number of statements in the Babylonian literature, may be
overcome in two different ways. Either Arachtu is only another term for
Euphrates, or we must arrive at the somewhat involved conclusion that in
course of time the Euphrates frequently changed its bed and had
interchanged with that of the Arachtu. In this case the ancient
Euphrates must be supposed to have described a curve or bow towards the
west, the chord of which was the Arachtu in its straight southward
course, thus forming an island of half-moon shape. This would have been
the position of affairs which Sennacherib happened upon when he cast the
zikurrat Etemenanki into the Arachtu.
In Sargon’s time, on the contrary, the western bed of the Euphrates
would have been sanded up, and its waters would have flowed directly in
the bed of the earlier Arachtu, and thus past our Sargon wall.
Nabopolassar, on the other hand, would have restored the Arachtu, for by
his time the Euphrates must have once more resumed its earlier western
channel, while Nebuchadnezzar would have destroyed the Arachtu, and
extended his citadel actually to the Euphrates. As already said, this is
a very perplexing theory, but it is the only one that remains for those
who reject the complete identity of the Euphrates and the Arachtu.
The building of the Southern Citadel destroyed the Arachtu wall at this
point, but immediately to the south of the Southern Citadel the
excavations have once more laid it bare and followed it up nearly to the
Amran mound. Here also there are numerous Arachtu bricks of Nabopolassar
in the brick masonry.
[Illustration:
FIG. 89.—Inscribed brick of Nabopolassar’s Arachtu wall.
]
On the inscribed bricks (Fig. 89) it is stated that “Nabopolassar, etc.,
the restorer of Esagila and Babylon, made the wall of the Arachtu for
Marduk, his lord.” In this the explicit placing together of Babylon and
Esagila as two parallel names of equal importance is very striking. It
entirely agrees, however, with what has been already said of the
original and actual Babylon, in its narrowest meaning, that in the
earliest period Esagila was independent of it (cf. p. 87 _et seq._).
The inscriptions chiselled on the burnt brick (Fig. 90) state that
“Nabopolassar, etc., surrounded the Dûr of Babylon with a wall of burnt
brick for protection.” Of this we have found only four examples, and
they are all in the walls to the north of the Southern Citadel.
The beginning of the oldest Nabopolassar wall rests on the round tower
of the Sargon wall. Its bricks, which are laid in pure asphalt, are very
irregular in size. Their length varies between 30, 31, 32, 33, and 34
centimetres; the last have the chiselled inscriptions. The wall outside
has a decided batter and inside is markedly stepped. It reaches only to
20 centimetres below zero, and on it was placed, at the part that runs
from north to south, a wall of brick rubble.
[Illustration:
FIG. 90.—Chiselled brick of Nabopolassar’s Arachtu wall.
]
At the rounded-off corner a wall, of which a small portion only now
remains, stretches out to the west, and belongs to a second building
period (Fig. 91).
Immediately in front lies the building of the third period, which
towards the east only extends a very short way beyond the corner, but of
which the north to south portion adds to the earliest building a strip
of land about 16 metres broad. It rises higher, and is as much as one
metre above zero; in the west it is formed of broken brick, in the north
of crude brick. This wall passes under the two mud walls, and within the
Southern Citadel it breaks off with a set-back. This latter must
certainly have formed part of an outlet of which the corresponding half
must have been destroyed by the building of the Southern Citadel. In
this place a bonding of the wall front is employed, which rarely occurs
elsewhere. It is formed throughout of one whole brick with a half one
behind it, followed by a half brick with a whole one behind it. In the
course above there is the same arrangement shifted by a half brick
placed sideways. This same method of bonding occurs with
Nebuchadnezzar’s bricks at the stairway which leads up to the north-east
corner of the Kasr.
[Illustration:
FIG. 91.—View of north-west corner of the Southern Citadel.
]
It is now evident that the older moat wall is also no other than an
Arachtu wall, which for the greater part of its northern length lay in
front of its predecessor, with no intervening space, while its western
portion added once more a strip of land to the old enclosure.
XXIII
THE WESTERN OUTWORKS
To the west of the Southern Citadel, and therefore at the place where
originally the Euphrates flowed, there is a remarkable building that
strikes one by the immense thickness of its walls, 20 to 25 metres in
width. It is not yet completely excavated. The upper part has been
removed at no very distant period by modern brick robbers, and the many
holes and mounds in the neighbourhood still bear witness to their
nefarious handiwork. The wall throughout is of solid compact brickwork,
built with excellent Nebuchadnezzar bricks laid in asphalt.
Between this building and the moat wall of Imgur-Bel a narrow ditch is
left; at its north and south ends only connecting pieces are jointed in,
pierced by several holes to allow the water to pass. The western limits
are not yet clearly definable. The somewhat long quadrilateral of the
ground-plan was divided by cross walls into a number of separate
divisions, of which the southernmost remained open, while the others
were occupied by a number of dwelling-like chambers. A great stairway or
ascending ramp is recognisable in the north-east corner of the southern
open space. During the building the ground plan was subjected in various
places to slight alterations.
The Nabonidus wall, which stretches from the south, joins on to the
south-west corner of the building with a tower, and the canal that flows
from the east passes through this tower.
It is evident that this building is the place referred to in
Nebuchadnezzar’s Sippar cylinder (_K.B._ iii. 2, p. 49, col. 2 l. 19):
“In order that no harm (?) should happen to the stronghold of Esagila
and Babylon, I caused a great fortification to be built in the river
(ḫa-al-zi ra-bi-tim i-na nâri) of bitumen and bricks. I raised its
foundation on the depths of the water, its top I exalted like the wooded
mountains” (trans. by Winckler).
XXIV
THE THREE GREAT FORTIFICATION WALLS NORTH OF THE SOUTHERN CITADEL
We now turn our attention to the three fortification walls, that follow
the direction of the ancient Arachtu walls, but which overlap them and
stretch farther to the west.
The northernmost consists of brick rubble, and extends from the cross
wall near the Ishtar Gate right over the ancient fosse wall, apparently
to the moat wall of Imgur-Bel. In front of it lay a building of which
several parallel lines of wall still remain. In these are cavities, due
to the insertion of upright bricks, where the beams of an upper storey
rested; the lower storey, of which the flooring still exists, has the
very moderate height of about 1.5 metres. Corresponding cavities for
beams are hewn out in the wall of brick rubble, as well as some isolated
niches, which may well have served to afford more space in these narrow
chambers. The two mud-brick walls are of course later than the
Nabopolassar walls that lie below them, but older than Nebuchadnezzar’s
Ishtar Gate. Where the southern thicker wall abuts on the wing of the
gate, there was a space one metre wide, enclosed on the north side only
by a slight mud wall. Here also it is obvious that the mud wall was cut
off for the purpose of building the Ishtar Gate. At the time when the
latter was built the two walls were repaired and raised, and the
narrower wall was turned slightly northward in order to secure a flush
fitting to the wing of the gate erected there. The southern wall, which
is 6 metres thick and has a scarcely perceptible batter, has a curtain
length of 15.3 metres, with large towers placed across it and smaller
ones placed lengthways in regular alternation (see Fig. 81). At the west
it ends with a specially large tower. In the second mesopyrgion from the
west there is a door, of which the earliest embrasure consists of
unstamped burnt bricks measuring from 32 × 32 to 31 × 31 centimetres.
The pavement is only 2 metres above zero. At a later period the jamb
also was faced with burnt brick with Nebuchadnezzar’s stamps, and the
pavement was raised to 2.65 metres, and later again to 4.5 above zero.
At this later period the part of the Southern Citadel which is opposite
our door did not yet exist, and the threshold rested on a sharply sloped
supporting wall which lies immediately in front of the Southern Citadel.
It is built of mud brick, and on the inside every second course was laid
with broken brick. It is possible that this supporting wall was made in
order to safeguard the path while these portions of the Citadel were
built. At a later period the embrasure was strengthened and the pavement
was raised to 5.5 metres above zero. It is a double layer, the lower one
of broken brick and the upper one of Nebuchadnezzar’s paving tiles, 51
centimetres square, and completely covered the interval to the Southern
Citadel. In the pavement and in holes made for the purpose in the mud
walls there were interments in brick coffins, with gable-shaped covers
formed of bricks placed edgeways, which are very characteristic of the
culture of Greece and its allies. It is the latest important style of
pavement lying here, and we can scarcely err if we assign it to the
Babylonian kingdom on account of its great similarity with the pavement
of the Southern Citadel. On this floor rests also a reinforcement of a
section of the mud wall accompanying it on the south side.
All these pavements lead upwards from west to east, and under each is
the drain belonging to it that carried off the water towards the west.
On the 5th tower from the west, at a height of 13 metres above zero,
there can be seen the cavities of a thick grid work laid lengthways. It
apparently carried the baulks of a cross grid which no longer exists,
and both were intended to serve as a new footing for a heightening of
the wall. The corners of the towers are secured in places by wooden
braces inlaid at the corners one over another.
In the space between the walls we again find several pavements laid one
above another. Among them, in the eastern part, are the great paving
tiles of Nebuchadnezzar, 13 to 14 metres above zero. Less substantial
mud walls have been patched in the central part and extend over the
northern wall, which must therefore have been ruined at that time. On
the other hand, near the 3rd tower from the east, there is part of an
older thick mud wall, which was cut through at the building of the
double wall. It is over 3 metres thick, with a marked batter on the
north side, and descends as deep as 3 metres above zero. Its direction
differs somewhat from that of the double wall, and is roughly that of
the Sargon wall. It is not probable, however, that it dates back to the
time of Sargon; we have dug especially deep at this point, as much as
one metre below zero (Fig. 92), and can therefore state with certainty
that there is no foundation here such as that of the Sargon wall.
Remains of a flooring of bricks measuring 29 × 29 centimetres lie 20
centimetres below zero.
Originally the northern wall consisted entirely of mud bricks, but at
the time of the building of the Ishtar Gate it was faced on both sides
with broken brick laid in asphalt and mud. On the east these descend as
deep as 4.5 metres above zero, and on the west, where the whole
enclosure lay lower, 2.2 metres. This refacing formed only part of the
alterations (see Fig. 87). At the level where the old mud wall ended a
massive wall of burnt brick began, of the thickness of the mud wall,
including its two facings. At the western part this was placed at a
height of 13 metres, where, as in the southern wall, the thick wooden
grid still remains in its cavities. At the west end the burnt-brick wall
begins at 3.5 metres, and still stands in place on the mud wall. Thus
the wall appears as one of burnt brick, containing an older core of mud
brick in the lower part.
That the refacing was not part of the original plan is shown by the fact
that in some of the mud-brick towers the cavities of walled-up gutters
still remain, such as we find in the city walls and the temples. The
brick casings of the gutters were taken away, and in their place the
brickwork of the facing was jointed in. With the exception of being
widened the wall was little altered by the new building. The towers
correspond in no way with those of the principal wall, at any rate it is
only in the eastern portion that the same principle has been adopted,
and a tower placed crossways is always succeeded by a smaller one placed
lengthways. Here too, however, the western end consists of an especially
large tower exactly in a straight line with that of the principal wall.
The gateway in the west forms, in its position, its facings, and
alterations a fairly exact counterpart of that in the principal wall.
But, besides this, the mud wall had also four other gateways, of which
only the one in the 5th mesopyrgion was retained in the rebuilding. A
drain with two inlet shafts carried off the surface water from here with
a sharp fall to the south, probably to the main conduit behind the
principal wall.
In front of the two wall heads at the west lay a building with the usual
arrangement of a court and surrounding chambers. It was built over the
ancient fosse wall, which by that time was destroyed, and might well
represent the dwelling of the commandant of the walls.
[Illustration:
FIG. 92.—Space between the two mud walls.
]
There were also two wall lengths of mud brick of a similar kind on the
east of the Ishtar Gate. They are not long. The thicker one breaks off
in the 2nd mesopyrgion, and is there supported by a later sloping
embankment wall, which turns off in a south-easterly direction, where we
have already followed it for 25 metres. The northern wall length is
still shorter. The excavations, which at this point were carried
considerably below the base of the mud wall, yielded mud and river
sediment that apparently came from the Euphrates, which during the
Persian period washed the eastern side of the Acropolis. In
Nebuchadnezzar’s time these walls certainly extended farther east, and
united themselves in some way, which is not yet entirely explained, with
the inner city wall, which according to the inscriptions found there is
to be recognised as the Nimitti-Bel of Sardanapalus. This is the more
certain because the Ishtar Gate is also named in inscriptions as
belonging to Imgur-Bel and Nimitti-Bel. Thus it is imperative that we
should make a slight digression of 1000 metres to the east in order to
observe this fortification. After that we will return to the Kasr.
XXV
THE INNER CITY WALL
A low embankment (Fig. 93), which passes Homera closely on the east, and
runs approximately from north to south through the plain for a length of
1700 metres, conceals the ruins of the inner town wall (see Fig. 249).
This is a double wall with an intermediate space of 7.2 metres. The
western wall, which is 6.5 metres thick, has large towers placed
crossways alternating with smaller ones placed lengthways, with a
frontage varying from 9.4 to 9.7 metres, at regular intervals of 18.1
metres. The larger towers have a depth of 11.4 metres, the smaller ones
of 8.06 metres (Fig. 94). The mud bricks measure 32 centimetres square.
In the west side of the smaller towers gutters are constructed of burnt
brick from 30 to 32 centimetres square. They open below with triangular
mouths.