Page:Herodotus and the Empires of the East.djvu/44

38 perhaps even the palace of the predecessors of Nabopolassar. Since these buildings after the time of Nabopolassar no longer served their original purpose, and were consequently insignificant as compared with the new palace, we must feel certain that in the time of Herodotus the palace of Nebuchadrezar was called the " royal palace " par excellence. We cannot accept the theory of Rawlinson, which declares that Herodotus must have found the palace of Nebuchadrezar destroyed, and consequently speaks of a palace of Neriglissar (Nergal-šar-usur) on the west bank; for Neriglissar, a successor of Nebuchadrezar, restored the palace of his illustrious predecessor. The place where the palace of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadrezar stood is shown to-day by those ruins in which bricks are found stamped with the name of Nebuchadrezar. The most northerly of the ruins which rise out of the extended débris is called Babil (also Murklubeh or Mudschelibeh). Owing to the remains of aqueducts we judge that these ruins mark the site of the " hanging gardens " which Nebuchadrezar erected to please his Median wife, Amytis. The heap of ruins immediately south of Babil, which to-day bears the name El Kasr (the fortress), probably contains the remains of the new palace of Nebuchadrezar. Again, the hill, Tel Amran, which lies still farther South, may mark the site of the old palace of Nabopolassar.

If the "royal palace" mentioned by Herodotus can be thus identified with the complex structure erected by Nebuchadrezar and his predecessor, then the "temple of Zeus Belos" can be no other than the Nebo temple