Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/336

 314 A HISTORY OF ART IN CIIALD.EA AND ASSYRIA. which that building was composed also had their angles turned to the four cardinal points. It was the same with the structures sprinkled over the summit of the vast mound of Kouyundjik, in the centre of what once was Nineveh. On the other hand in those ruins at Nimroud that have been identified with the ancient Calah, it is the sides of the mound and of the buildings upon it that face the four cardinal points (Fig. 145). The plan given by Layard of the square staged tower disengaged in his last digging campaign at the north-western angle of the mound shows this more clearly. 1 Nearly half the northern side is occupied by the salient circular mass that is FIG. 145. G2neral plan of the remains at Nimroud ; from Layard. i, 2, 3 Trenches, 4 Central palace, 5 Tombs, 6 South-eastern edifice, J South-western palace, 8 North-western palace, 9 High pyramidal mound. such a conspicuous object to one looking at the mound from the plain. We do not know what caused this deviation from the traditional custom ; a reason should perhaps be sought in the configuration of the ground, and in the course here followed by the river which then bathed the foot of the artificial hill upon which stood the royal dwellings of the Tiglath-Pilesers and Assurnazirpals. The first of these two methods of orientation had the advantage of establishing a more exact and well defined relation between the disposition of the building and those celestial points to which 1 LAYARD, DisLOveries, plan 2, p. 123