[The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 2. (of 7): Assyria by George Rawlinson]@TWC D-Link bookThe Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 2. (of 7): Assyria CHAPTER IV 14/17
The ground within the gate-way was paved with large slabs of limestone, still bearing the marks of chariot wheels. The castellated rampart which thus surrounded and guarded Nineveh did not constitute by any means its sole defence.
Outside the stone basement wall lay on every side a water barrier, consisting on the west and south of natural river courses; on the north and east, of artificial channels into which water was conducted from the Khosr-su.
The northern and eastern walls were skirted along their whole length by a broad and deep moat, into which the Khosr-su was made to flow by occupying its natural bed with a strong dam carried across it in the line of the eastern wall, and at the point where the stream now enters the enclosure.
On meeting this obstruction, of which there are still some remains, the waters divided, and while part flowed to the south-east, and reached the Tigris by the ravine immediately to the south of the city, which is a natural water-course, part turned at an acute angle to the north-west, and, washing the remainder of the eastern and the whole of the northern wall, gained the Tigris at the north-west angle of the city, where a second dam kept it at a sufficient height.
Moreover, on the eastern face, which appears to have been regarded as the weakest, a series of outworks were erected for the further defence of the city.
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