* The precise nature of the edifices referred to in the inscriptions under the name of Bit-khilani is still a matter of controversy.  It has been identified with the pillared hall, or audience-chamber, such as we find in Sargon’s palace at Khorsabad, and with edifices or portions of edifices which varied according to the period, but which were ornamented with columns.  It seems clear, however, that it was used of the whole series of chambers and buildings which formed the monumental gates of Assyrian palaces, something analogous to the Migdol of Ramses III. at Medinet-Habu, and more especially to the gates at Zinjirli.

Those discovered at Zinjirli afford fine examples of the arrangements adopted in buildings of this kind; the lower part of the walls was covered with bas-reliefs, figures of gods and men, soldiers mounted or on foot, victims and fantastic animal shapes; the columns, where there were any, rested on the back of a sphinx or on a pair of griffins of a type which shows a curious mixture of Egyptian and Semitic influences.

[Illustration:  317.jpg THE FOUNDATINS OF A Bit-khilani]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch published by Luschan.

[Illustration:  318.jpg BASE OF A COLUMN AT ZINJIRELI]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph published by
     Luschan.

The wood-work of the Ninevite Bit-khilani was of cedar from Mount Amanus, the door-frames and fittings were of various rare woods, inlaid with ivory and metal.  The entrance was guarded by the usual colossal figures, and the walls of the state reception-rooms were covered with slabs of alabaster; on these, in accordance with the usual custom,* were carved scenes from the royal wars, with explanatory inscriptions.  The palace was subsequently dismantled, its pictures defaced and its inscriptions obliterated,** to mark the hatred felt by later generations towards the hero whom they were pleased to regard as a usurper; we can only partially succeed in deciphering his annals by the help of the fragmentary sentences which have escaped the fury of the destroyer.

     * The building of Tiglath-pileser’s palace is described in
     the Nimroud Inscription.  It stood near the centre of the
     platform of Nimroud.

** The materials were utilised by Esarhaddon, but it does not necessarily follow that the palace was dismantled by that monarch; this was probably done by Sargon or by Sennacherib.

The cities and fortresses which he raised throughout the length and breadth of Assyria proper and its more recently acquired provinces have similarly disappeared; we can only conjecture that the nobles of his court, fired by his example, must have built and richly endowed more than one city on their hereditary estates, or in the territories under their rule.  Bel-harran-beluzur, the marshal of the palace, who twice gave his name to years of the king’s reign, viz. in 741