Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/63

 Other Palaces of Mesopotamia. 45 assuming that Nebbi-Younas also hides its palaces. They too will have their turn. Thanks to the prestige of the prophet they are reserved for excavations to be conducted perhaps in a more systematic fashion than those hitherto undertaken on the site of Nineveh. At Kouyundjik, on the other hand, no serious obstacle was encountered. The village transported itself to the plain ; it was Fig. i 8. — Map of the site of Nineveh ; from Oppert. not necessary to persuade the inhabitants to quit it, as it had been at Khorsabad. When Botta, who had begun certain inquisitions at this spot, abandoned his attempts, the English explorers were left free to sound the flanks of the artificial hill at their leisure, and to choose their point of attack. If they had gone to work in the same fashion as Botta and Place, they might have laid bare palaces excelling that of Sargon in the scale and variety of their