* The name of Arbeles is written in a form which appears to
     signify “the town of the four gods.”

** This kingdom of Singara is mentioned in the Egyptian lists of Thutmosis III.  Schrader was doubtful as to its existence, but one of its kings is mentioned in a letter from the King of Alasia to Amenothes IV.; according to Niebuhr, the state of which Singara was the capital must have been identical, at all events at one period, with the Mitanni of the Egyptian texts.

     *** The Arapakha of the Egyptian monuments has been
     identified with the Arrapakhitis of the Greeks.

Assyria, however, had already asserted her supremacy over this corner of Asia, and the remaining princes, even if they were not mere vicegerents depending on her king, were not strong enough in wealth and extent of territory to hold their own against her, since she was undisputed mistress of Assur, Arbeles, Kalakh, and Nineveh, the most important cities of the plain.  Assur covered a considerable area, and the rectangular outline formed by the remains of its walls is still discernible on the surface of the soil.  Within the circuit of the city rose a mound, which the ancient builders had transformed, by the addition of masses of brickwork, into a nearly square platform, surmounted by the usual palace, temple, and ziggurat; it was enclosed within a wall of squared stone, the battlements of which remain to the present day.* The whole pile was known as the “Ekharsagkurkurra,” or the “House of the terrestrial mountain,” the sanctuary in whose decoration all the ancient sovereigns had vied with one another, including Samsiramman I. and Irishum, who were merely vicegerents dependent upon Babylon.  It was dedicated to Anshar, that duplicate of Anu who had led the armies of heaven in the struggle with Tiamat; the name Anshar, softened into Aushar, and subsequently into Ashshur, was first applied to the town and then to the whole country.**

     * Ainsworth states the circumference of the principal mound
     of Kalah-Shergat to be 4685 yards, which would make it one
     of the most extensive ruins in the whole country.

** Another name of the town in later times was Palbeki, “the town of the old empire,” “the ancient capital,” or Shauru.  Many Assyriologists believe that the name Ashur, anciently written Aushar, signified “the plain at the edge of the water”; and that it must have been applied to the town before being applied to the country and the god.  Others, on the contrary, think, with more reason, that it was the god who gave his name to the town and the country; they make a point of the very ancient play of words, which in Assyria itself attributed the meaning “good god” to the word Ashur.  Jensen was the first to state that Ashur was the god Anshar of the account of the creation.

The god himself was a deity of light, usually represented under the form of an armed man, wearing the tiara