[Illustration:  166.jpg EXCAVATIONS IN THE TEMPLE OP NINIB AT BABYLON.]

     In the middle distance may be seen the metal trucks running
     on light rails which are employed on the work for the
     removal of the debris from the diggings.

Dr. Andrae, Dr. Koldewey’s assistant, has also completed the excavation of the temple dedicated to Nabu at Birs Nimrud.  On the principal mound at this spot, which marks the site of the ancient city of Borsippa, traces of the ziggurat, or temple tower, may still be seen rising from the soil, the temple of Nabu lying at a lower level below the steep slope of the mound, which is mainly made up of debris from the ziggurat.  Dr. Andrae has recently left Babylonia for Assyria, where his excavations at Sher-ghat, the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Ashur, are confidently expected to throw considerable light on the early history of that country and the customs of the people, and already he has made numerous finds of considerable interest.

[Illustration:  167.jpg THE PRINCIPAL MOUND OF BIRS NIMRUD, WHICH MARKS THE SITE OP THE ANCIENT CITY OP BORSIPPA.]

Since the early spring of 1903 excavations have been conducted at Kuyunjik, the site of the city of Nineveh, by Messrs. L. W. King and R. C. Thompson on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum, and have resulted in the discovery of many early remains in the lower strata of the mound, in addition to the finding of new portions of the two palaces already known and partly excavated, the identification of a third palace, and the finding of an ancient temple dedicated to Nabu, whose existence had already been inferred from a study of the Assyrian inscriptions.* All these diggings at Babylon, at Ashur, and at Nineveh throw more light upon the history of the country during the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, and will be referred to later in the volume.

* It may be noted that excavations are also being actively carried on in Palestine at the present time.  Mr. Macalister has for some years been working for the Palestine Exploration Fund at Gezer; Dr. Schumacher is digging at Megiddo for the German Palestine Society; and Prof.  Sellin is at present excavating at Taanach (Ta’annak) and will shortly start work at Dothan.  Good work on remains of later historical periods is also being carried on under the auspices of the Deutsch-Orient Gesellschaft at Ba’albek and in Galilee.  It would be tempting to include here a summary of the very interesting results that have recently been achieved in this fruitful field of archaeological research, for it is true that these excavations may strictly be said to bear on the history of a portion of Western Asia.  But the problems which they raise would more naturally be discussed in a work dealing with recent excavation and research in relation to the Bible, and to have summarized them adequately would have increased the size of the present volume considerably beyond its natural limits.  They have therefore not been included within the scope of the present work.

[Illustration:  168.jpg THE PRINCIPAL MOUND AT SHEKGHAT, WHICH MARKS THE SITE OF ASHUK, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE ASSYRIANS.]