though it is opposite to them.  The passages by which they gave entrance into that court must have formed some such angles as those marked by the dotted lines in the plan, the result being that visitors, while passing through the outer court, would be unable to catch any sight of what was going on in the Hareem Court. even if the great doors happened to be open.  Those admitted so far into the palace as the Temple Court were more favored or less feared.  The doorway (d) on the south-east side of the Hareem Court is exactly opposite the chief doorway on the north-west side of the Temple Court, and there can be no reasonable doubt that a straight passage connected the two.

It is uncertain whether the Hareem Court was surrounded by buildings on every side, or open towards the south-west.  M. Botta believed that it was open; and the analogy of the other courts would seem to make this probable.  It is to be regretted, however, that this portion of the great Khorsabad ruin still remains so incompletely examined.  Consisting of the private apartments, it is naturally less rich in sculptures than other parts; and hence it has been comparatively neglected.  The labor would, nevertheless, be well employed which should be devoted to this part of the ruin, as it would give us (what we do not now possess) the complete ground-plan of an Assyrian palace.  It is earnestly to be hoped that future excavators will direct their efforts to this easily attainable and interesting object.

The ground-pins of the palaces, and some sixteen feet of their elevations, are all that fire and time have left us of these remarkable monuments.  The total destruction of the upper portion of every palatial building in Assyria, combined with the want of any representation of the royal residences upon the bas-reliefs, reduces us to mere conjecture with respect to their height, to the mode in which they were roofed and lighted, and even to the question whether they had or had not an upper story.  On these subjects various views have been put forward by persons entitled to consideration; and to these it is proposed now to direct the reader’s attention.

In the first place, then, had they an upper story?  Mr. Layard and Mr. Fergusson decide this question in the affirmative.  Mr. Layard even goes so far as to say that the fact is one which “can no longer be doubted.”  He rests this conclusion on two grounds first, on a belief that “upper chambers” are mentioned in the Inscriptions, and, secondly, on the discovery by himself, in Sennacherib’s palace at Koyunjik, of what seemed to be an inclined way, by which he supposes that the ascent was made to an upper story.  The former of these two arguments must be set aside as wholly uncertain.  The interpretation of the architectural inscriptions of the Assyrians is a matter of far too much doubt at present to serve as a groundwork upon which theories can properly be raised as to the plan of their buildings.  With