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The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 2. (of 7): Assyria - The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, - Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian - or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations. by George Rawlinson
page 59 of 524 (11%)
the plum is towards the south-eastern extremity, where it overhangs the
small stream of the Khosr; the elevation in this part being about
ninety-five feet. The area covered by the mound is estimated at a
hundred acres, and the entire mass is said to contain 14,500,000 tons of
earth. The labor of a man would scarcely excavate and place in position
more than 120 tons of earth in a year; it would require, therefore, the
united exertions of 10,000 men for twelve years, or 20,000 men for six
years, to complete the structure. On this artificial eminence were
raised in ancient times the palaces and temples of the Assyrian
monarchs, which are now imbedded in the debris of their own ruins.

[Illustration: PLATE 37]

The mound of Nebbi-Ymus is at its base nearly triangular: [PLATE
XXXVII., Fig. 1.] It covers an area of about forty acres. It is loftier,
and its sides are more precipitous, than Koyunjik, especially on the
west, where it abutted upon the wall of the city. The surface is mostly
flat, but is divided about the middle by a deep ravine, running nearly
from north to south, and separating the mound into an eastern and a
western portion. The so-called tomb of Jonah is conspicuous on the north
edge of the western portion of the mound, and about it are grouped the
cottages of the Kurds and Turcomans to whom the site of the ancient
Nineveh belongs. The eastern portion of the mound forms a burial-ground,
to which the bodies of Mahometans are brought from considerable
distances. The mass of earth is calculated at six and a half millions of
tons; so that its erection would have given full employment to 10,000
men for the space of five years and a half.

These two vast mounds--the platforms on which palaces and temples were
raised--are both in the same line, and abutted, both of them, on the
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