The ornamentation of temples, to judge by the few specimens which remain, was very similar to that of palaces.  The great gateways were guarded by colossal bulls or lions see [PLATE LV.], accompanied by the usual sacred figures, and sometimes covered with inscriptions.  The entrances and some portions of the chambers were ornamented with the customary sculptured slabs, representing here none but religious subjects.  No great proportion of the interior, however, was covered in this way, the walls being in general only plastered and then painted with figures or patterns.  Externally, enamelled bricks were used as a decoration wherever sculptured slabs did not hide the crude brick.

[Illustration:  PLATE 55]

Much the sane doubts and difficulties beset the subjects of the roofing and lighting of the temples as those which have been discussed already in connection with the palaces.  Though the span of the temple-chambers is less than that of the great palace halls, still it is considerable, sometimes exceeding thirty feet.  No effort seems made to keep the temple-chambers narrow, for their width is sometimes as much as two-thirds of their length.  Perhaps, therefore, they were hypaethral, like the temples of the Greeks.  All that seems to be certain is that what roofing they had was of wood, which at Nimrud was cedar, brought probably from the mountains of Syria.

Of the domestic architecture of the Assyrians we possess absolutely no specimen.  Excavation has been hitherto confined to the most elevated portions of the mounds which mark the sites of cities, where it was likely that remains of the greatest interest would be found.  Palaces, temples, and the great gates which gave entrance to towns, have in this way seen the light; but the humbler buildings, the ordinary dwellings of the people, remain buried beneath the soil, unexplored and even unsought for.  In this entire default of any actual specimen of an ordinary Assyrian house, we naturally turn to the sculptured representations which are so abundant and represent so many different sorts of scenes.  Even here, however, we obtain but little light.  The bulk of the slabs exhibit the wars of the kings in foreign countries, and thus place before us foreign rather than Assyrian architecture.  The processional slabs, which are another large class, contain rarely any building at all, and, where they furnish one, exhibit to us a temple rather than a house.  The hunting scenes, representing wilds far from the dwellings of man, afford us, as might be expected, no help.  Assyrian buildings, other than temples, are thus most rarely placed before us.  In one case, indeed, we have an Assyrian city, which a foreign enemy is passing; but the only edifices represented are the walls and towers of the exterior, and the temple [No.  VI., PLATE L.] whose columns rest upon lions.  In one other we seem to have an unfortified Assyrian village; and from this single specimen we are forced to form our ideas of the ordinary character of Assyrian houses.