Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/127

Rh "The mound called 'Nimrood' is situated about twenty miles to the south of Mosul, on the eastern banks of the river Tigris. We reached the large village of Sulleimîa in five hours' ride from the town and took with us from thence several Coords provided with spades and shovels to assist us in case we should discover any thing near the surface worth excavating. Nimrood was distinctly visible from Sulleimîa, which being built on an eminence commands a wide prospect of the plain beyond in which the mound is situated. A high cone with an unbroken surface, rising above the general level of the mound, was the principal object which attracted our attention at this distance. We crossed the well-cultivated plain, and in less than half an hour reached the foot of the mound. The soil in the immediate vicinity had been ploughed, and barley was shooting up in the furrows. To our great surprise and delight we found that the ground was literally strewn with fragments of brick covered with cuneiform inscriptions, which circumstance fully confirmed the testimony of Rich, who visited the spot about twenty-five years since, and who has given several fac-similes of these fragments in his excellent 'Notes on Coordistan.' After a careful search we were obliged to relinquish the hope of finding any whole bricks in the plain, where the ground had evidently been long subjected to the plough. We next surveyed the mound: it forms a parallelogram measuring 570 paces by 450, the exterior edges rising to an elevation of 45 feet, and declining inwards so as to form a concave of the inclosed area, which was covered here and there with patches of furrowed soil, and crossed by several foot-paths. The rains, which have formed small beds through the mound, have laid bare several specimens of the ruins concealed under the superincumbent soil and rubbish. These we found to consist generally of red bricks, cemented together with bitumen, after the manner of the ruins already discovered at ancient Babylon.

"We next ascended the cone which rises from the north-east angle of the mound to the height of forty feet above the general elevation of the platform. Its exterior is quite level, except where a portion of some massive stone projects beyond the surface. At the summit is a deep fissure through which we discovered the evident remains of architecture confusedly thrown