Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/415

 RUINS OF STAGED TOWERS. 387 chief temple of Calah. There is no trace either of the ramp or of the colours with which the different stories were ornamented. The Khorsabad tower discovered by Place is more interesting and much more instructive as to the arrangement and constitution of these buildings. 1 This tower was previously hidden under a mass of debris, which gave it a conical form like that at Nimroud. Botta had already noticed its existence, but he failed to guess its real character, which, indeed, was only divined by Place when his explorations were far advanced. As soon as all doubt was removed as to the real character of the monument, M. Place took every care to preserve all that might yet exist of it, and our Fig. 184 shows the state of the building after the excavations were complete. I IG. 184. Actual condition of the so-called Observatoiy, at Khorsabad ; from Place. Three whole stages and part of a fourth (to say nothing of the plinth) were still in existence. The face of each stage was ornamented with vertical grooves, repeating horizontally the elevation of the Assyrian stepped battlements (Fig. 102) ; the coloured stucco, varying in hue from one stage to another, was still in place, and confirmed the assertions of Herodotus as to the traditional sequence of tints. 2 The external ramp, with its pavement of burnt brick and its crenellated parapet, was also found. 3 At its base the first stage described upon the soil a 1 PLACE, Ninivc, vol. i, pp. 147-148, and plates 36-37. 2 See above, pp. 272-274. 3 We have already mentioned the size of its steps ; see page 192. The gradient for the first stage was about one in twenty. In the upper stages it must have been far steeper, as the circumference of the stages was much less, while their height