[Illustration:  135.jpg THE TEMPLE OF URU IN ITS PRESENT STATE, ACCORDING TO TAYLOR]

     Facsimile, by Faucher-Gudin, of the drawing published by
     Taylor.

     * At the present time 14 feet high, plus 5 feet of rubbish,
     119 feet long, 75 feet wide (Loftus, Travels and Researches
     in Olialdsea and Susiana, p. 129).

     ** The cylinders of Nabonidos describing the restoration of
     the temple were found at the four angles of the second story
     by Taylor.

Till within the last century, traces of a third story to this temple might have been distinguished; unlike the lower ones, it was not of solid brickwork, but contained at least one chamber:  this was the Holy of Holies, the sanctuary of Nannar.  The external walls were covered with pale blue enamelled tiles, having a polished surface.  The interior was panelled with cedar or cypress—­rare woods procured as articles of commerce from the peoples of the North and West; this woodwork was inlaid in parts with thin leaves of gold, alternating with panels of mosaics composed of small pieces of white marble, alabaster, onyx, and agate, cut and polished.

[Illustration:  136.jpg FURTHER VIEW OF THE TEMPLE OF URU]

     In Its Present State, According To Loftus.  Drawn by
     Bouchier, from Loftus.

Here stood the statue of Nannar, one of those stiff and conventionalized figures in the traditional pose handed down from generation to generation, and which lingered even in the Chaldaean statues of Greek times.  The spirit of the god dwelt within it in the same way as the double resided in the Egyptian idols, and from thence he watched over the restless movements of the people below, the noise of whose turmoil scarcely reached him at that elevation.  The gods of the Euphrates, like those of the Nile, constituted a countless multitude of visible and invisible beings, distributed into tribes and empires throughout all the regions of the universe.  A particular function or occupation formed, so to speak, the principality of each one, in which he worked with an indefatigable zeal, under the orders of his respective prince or king; but, whereas in Egypt they were on the whole friendly to man, or at the best indifferent in regard to him, in Chaldaea they for the most part pursued him with an implacable hatred, and only seemed to exist in order to destroy him.  These monsters of alarming aspect, armed with knives and lances, whom the theologians of Heliopolis and Thebes confined within the caverns of Hades in the depths of eternal darkness, were believed by the Chaldaeans to be let loose in broad daylight over the earth,—­such were the “gallu” and the “mas-kim,” the “alu” and the “utukku,” besides a score of other demoniacal tribes bearing curious and mysterious names.

[Illustration:  137.jpg Lion-headed genius.]