NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S PALACE IN BABYLON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 187, 11 September 1909, Page 4

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S PALACE IN BABYLON.

A description of some of the most striking discoveries so far achieved upon the site of the palace-fortress of ancient Babylon by the German excavators under the direction of Dr. Koldc.vey was recently published by The Times, and romantic the story is. "The work achieved by them upon this site since 18!)!) has produced results not inferior to any which have been carried on within the limits of ancient Babylonia for the magnitude and in-i terest of the relics which have been laid bare. Beneath the great mound preeminently known to the modern Arab population ns El-Kasr, or 'the castle,' which r ises above the now desolate plain J of the Euphrates, has been discovered the palace of Nebuchadnezzar and the other great works with which he adorned his capital. Their magnitude seems to I provide no inadequate ground for the words of pride in 'great Babylon, that I have built,' attributed to the King in the Book of Daniel. THE MASSIVE' WALL.

"Yeare of labor 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 '>as .--lready been laid bare contains specimens of architecture which amply illustrate the magnitude of the King's work. One of the outer walls, for example, is j more than twenty-four yards thick. Besides the palace buildings, with the great oblong hall, with its alcove at one end to contain a throne, which is sup- ] osed to have been the scene of Belshazzar's feast, a conspicuous feature of the excavations is the so-called 'sacred way' which leads along the east side of the palace to the temple of the goddess Ishtar, crossed by a great gate which was heightened by Nebuchadnezzar four or five times over, as ho repeatedly raised the level of the roa'd in his successive 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 monuments of stone. The desiccated soil of Mesopotamia has wrought little damage to the guried structures, "1Ihough thi! gradual raising of the bed of the Euphrates by alluvial deposits has submerged, and perhaps seriously injured, the lower layers of debris, some of which date from a period more than a thousand years earlier than that of the brief but splendid Second Baby lonian Empire which reached its highest 1 point under Nebuchadnezzar. "Magnificent as arc the relics already discovered of the Second Babylonian Empire, they represent but some of the later stages in the long story of liuman 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 natura'ly ' much greater in proportion to the depth 1 at which they lie. But in one of the ' most ancient parts of the city Dr. Kol- ' iJewey and his colleagues are now en--1 gaged in investigating the relics of the First Babylonian Empire, which was ■ long antecedent both to Nebuchadnezzar ! and to his Assyrian predecessors. I THE HORIZONS OF HISTORY. > "The widening of the horizons of hisi ,tory is one of the most powerful instm--1 ments for expanding and educating the i human mind, and the effect of such dis- ' coveries as those in Babylonia or in ; : CTete !s likely to be more and more

(widespread and profound. The relics of ancient civilisations seem likely .to produce an educational effect upon many| I types of mind which are Impervious to' rhe humanism of literature."