[PLATE XXIV., Fig.

2.] An exact description of this remarkable edifice will be given hereafter.
It appears from the inscriptions on its bricks to have been commenced by one of the early kings, and completed by another.

Its internal structure has led to the supposition that it was designed to be a place of burial for one or other of these monarchs.

Another conjecture is, that it was a watch-tower; but this seems very unlikely, since no trace of any mode by which it could be ascended has been discovered.
Forty miles below Calah, on the opposite bank of the Tigris, was a third great city, the native name of which appears to have been Asshur.

This place is represented by the ruins at Kileh-Sherghat, which are scarcely inferior in extent to those at Nimrud or Calah.