The entire height of the rooms was thus from sixteen to seventeen or eighteen feet.
The character of Asshur-izir-pal's sculptures has been sufficiently described in an earlier chapter.

They have great spirit, boldness, and force; occasionally they show real merit in the design; but they are clumsy in the drawing and somewhat coarse in the execution.

What chiefly surprises us in regard to them is the suddenness with which the art they manifest appears to have sprung up, without going through the usual stages of rudeness and imperfection.

Setting aside one mutilated statue, of very poor execution, and a single rock tablet, we have no specimens remaining of Assyrian mimetic art more ancient than this monarch.

That art almost seems to start in Assyria, like Minerva from the head of Jove, full-grown.