NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S PALACE IN BABYLON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 79

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S PALACE IN BABYLON.

A description of some of the most strik- j ing discoveries to far achieved upon the j site of the palace fortress of ancient Baby- • lon by the German excavators under thei direction of Dr , Koldewey was recently 4 published by The Times, and romantic the story ' is. j "The ?rork achieved by them upon this site since 1899 has preduced results not ' inferior to- any which have been carried - on ' within the Limits of ancient Babylonia for the magnitude and interest of the relies which have been laid bare. Be- • neath the great mound, pre-eminen-fly known to the modern Arab population as El-Kasr, or 'the castle,' which rises above the now desolate plain, of the j&upbrates, has been discovered th© palace of Nebuchadnezzar, and the other great works with which he adorned his capital. Their magnitude .seems to provide no inadequate ground for the words of pride in 'great Babylon, that I have built,' ; to the King of the Book of Daniel. —The MassiVe Wall.— "Years of labour will still be required to trace the ground plan of all the palace buildings, adjacent to and protecting the royal dwelling, built by Nebuchadnezzar above the less splendid edifice of his father, Nabopolassar. But the great irregular enclosure which has already been laid bare contains specimens of architec- ' tore which amply" illustrate fhe magnitude ' of the King's work. One of the outer walls, for example, is more than, 24 vaTds thick. Besides the palace buildings, with the great oblong hall, with its alcove at one end to contain a throne, which is supposed to have been the scene of Belshazzar's feast, a conspicuous *eature of the excavations is the so-called 'sacred way' which leads along the east siie of j the> palace to Jthe temple of the" goddess I Ishtar, crossed by 'a, great gate which was ! heightened by Nebuchadnezzar four or | five times over, as he repeatedly raised j the level of the road, in his Miccessiv« undertakings. — Empires Beneath the Soil. — "This great city of brick has peculiar ! features of interest, and also of difficulty , for the explorer, as compared with monu- '. ments of stone. The desiccated soil of i Mesopotamia has wrought little damage j to the buried structures, although the j gradual raising of the bed of th« Euphrates by alluvial deposits has submerged, and perhaps f-eiriously injured, the lower layers of debris, some of which date from a period more than 1000 years earlier than that of the brief but splendid Second Babylonian Empire which reached its highest point under Nebuchadnezzar. "Magnificent Ss are the relics already j discovered of the Second Babylonian Em- j pire, they represent but some of the later stages -iif the long story of human civilisation upon this site. Though Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon lies buried many feet deep beneath the ruins, of subsequent dominions, it rests upon a succession of earlier strata which go back not improbably to a date yet more remote from Nebuchadnezzar's than his is from our own. The difficulty of exploring these earlier layers is naturally much, greater in proportion to the depth at which they lie. But in one of the most ancient parts of the city Dr Koldewey and has :oll&agucs are now engaged in investigating the relics of the First Babylonian Empire, which was long antecedent both to Nebu■chadnezzar and- to his Assyrian predecessors. — The Horizons of History. — "The widening of the horizons of history is one of the most jtowerful instruments for expanding and educating th«» human, mind, and the efteet of such discoveries as those in Babylonia or in Cre'e i is likely to be more and more widespread I and profound. The relics of ancient civi- j lisations «eem likely to produce an educational ""effect upon many types of mind J which are impervious to the humanism of j literature."