Page:Herodotus and the Empires of the East.djvu/45

Rh of Borsippa, which is called in the inscriptions Ezida. Next to Esagila, the temple of Pel-Merodach, Ezida of Borsippa was the greatest sanctuary of the land. It is with pride that the Babylonian and Assyrian kings, when they became lords of Babylon, called themselves "restorers" or "builders" of Esagila and Ezida. Nebuchadrezar frequently mentions (e. g., E. I. H., III., 18 fg.) this great sanctuary, which, like Esagila, was composed of numerous structures. Further mention is found in an inscription relating to the building of the bank-walls of Babylon and Borsippa (V. R., 34, Col. I., 50), but especially in the so-called Borsippa Inscription (I. R., 51, No. i). The king narrates here how he restored the terrace-tower of Borsippa (Ziḳûrat), called E-ur-imin-an-ki ("house of the seven spheres of heaven and earth"), which a former king had left incomplete and which had been injured by the storms. The cuneiform document which contains this report was found by H. Rawlinson in 1854 in the ruins of Birs Nimroud in the third story of what was originally the seven-terraced tower. Consequently we are sure that Birs Nimroud, the most remarkable ruins on Babylonian soil, represents the remains of the former Nebo temple at Borsippa.

That Herodotus had in mind the Nebo temple at Borsippa, when he speaks of the temple of Zeus Belos, is shown by the situation of Birs Nimroud. According to him the temple of Zeus Belos was situated on one bank of the Euphrates and the royal palace on the other. Since the royal palace, as we have already shown, was in the eastern part of the town, the temple of Zeus Belos must have stood on the western bank; but Ezida lay here, if not the only, at least by far the