. The cradle of mankind; life in eastern Kurdistan . the den of lions of the King of Babylon. There isevidence in parallel instances that such was the case else-where. Of course the great temples of Bel-Merodach, Ishtar, andother gods, form a feature of the city, and have been mostcarefully excavated. They were constructed on a planthat seems strange to the Western; for they have no pre-cinct, or have lost what they had, and the houses of thepoorest quarter of the town actually abutted on the walls ofthe hoHest of them. Herodotus speaks of courts two stadia square, butone cannot reconcile this
. The cradle of mankind; life in eastern Kurdistan . the den of lions of the King of Babylon. There isevidence in parallel instances that such was the case else-where. Of course the great temples of Bel-Merodach, Ishtar, andother gods, form a feature of the city, and have been mostcarefully excavated. They were constructed on a planthat seems strange to the Western; for they have no pre-cinct, or have lost what they had, and the houses of thepoorest quarter of the town actually abutted on the walls ofthe hoHest of them. Herodotus speaks of courts two stadia square, butone cannot reconcile this with the facts. In design they THE SHRINE OF ISHTAR 355 seem to have followed the local type of house ; for theyconsist of a series of comparatively small chambers, builtround a small court. The shrine (which has usually an ante-shrine before it) is no more than an inner chamberat one end of this court ; and has usually a secret passagebehind it, communicating with the chambers where thepriests lodged, and which it is difficult to believe was not. TEmPtEDFISHTflR BflByiON intended for the production of miraculous of all perhaps is it to find that, while fine materiallike burnt brick, enamel, alabaster and hewn stone, islavished on the palaces and secular buildings of the city, thetemples of the gods are without exception built of plain sun-dried mud brick. This extends even to the altars, which stand on a smallpavement just without the main doorways, and practicallyin the street. There is no stone anywhere in any of thebuildings, save the blocks on which the great doors, revolved,which were buried out of sight.* * Under these was in each case a small chamber, just large enough tocontain the miniature image of the guardian of the threshold thatwas invariably placed there. 356 THE GRAVES OF DEAD EMPIRES There must have been a reason for this choice, andeconomy can be ruled out of court without it is most probable that religious conservatism w
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