Page 104 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

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THE LATE ASSYRIAN PERIOD
inner area
the top of the Ziggurat in the royal palace. The i of the town must be left a ,
blank, since we know nothing of the street plan; some houses near gates 4, 5, and 6, and
near building F, have been drawn in.

xxn

XXVII
1 B a
UdBascaif
XXXI

o 50 100 METRES
O 100 200 300 FEET

Figure 30. Plan of Sargon’s palace, Khorsabad

It is clear that the planners aimed at regularity, and the frequent deviation from the
right angle is due to imperfect methods of surveying. It is, for instance, characteristic of
their love of symmetry that each side of the square should have two gates, for the lie of
the land does not permit an equal flow of traffic in all directions. Gate 2 faces the ridge
of Jebel Maklub, which can only be crossed farther to the north-west, beyond the road
passing through gate 1. Traffic leaving by gates 3 and 4 would have to join the main
road to Nineveh (which passed through gate 5) for any point south of the Capital. But a

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