[17] Thomas placed this ramp at the south-east rather than at the south-west because it seemed better to make it lead direct to H, the forecourt of the sélamlik, than to break in upon the privacy of the harem at the opposite corner. [18] This court was about 206 feet wide, by 366 feet long. [19] The letters on our plan signify courts, or rooms--like some of those in the harem--that were only partially roofed in. [20] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. p. 57. [21] LENORMANT, _Manuel d’Histoire ancienne_, vol. ii. p. 197. [22] See Vol. I. page 392. [23] OPPERT, _Expédition scientitique_, vol. ii. p. 242. [24] The doorway beside which these artificial palms are raised is that which leads from the court U to the hall marked Y on the plan. As to the elements made use of in our restoration, see PLACE, vol. i. pp. 114–127, and vol. ii. p. 35. We have already noticed the discovery of the metal-sheathed poles (p. 202, and fig. 72). [25] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. iii. plate 25, fig. 4. [26] See the _Book of Esther_. [27] This room corresponds to the apartment in the richer houses of Mossoul and Bagdad, that goes by the name of _iwan_ or _pichkaneh_. It is a kind of summer hall, open on one side (OPPERT, _Expédition scientifique_, vol. i. p. 90). [28] A minute description of all these offices will be found in PLACE (_Ninive_, vol. iii. pp. 76–105). [29] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. pp. 99 and 274. [30] OPPERT, _Les Inscriptions des Sargonides_, p. 52. [31] So far as I know, PLACE alone has given this problem a moment’s attention (_Ninive_, vol. i. p. 279), but nothing could be more improbable than the hypothesis by which he attempts to solve it. He suggests that one of the drains of which we have already spoken may have been a conduit or siphon in communication with some subterranean reservoir and provided with pumping apparatus at its summit. We have no evidence whatever that the principle of the suction-pump was known to the Assyrians. [32] STRABO (xvi. i. 5) pretends that the hanging gardens of Babylon were watered by means of the _screw of Archimedes_ (κοχλίας or κόχλος). If it be true that this invention was known to the Chaldæans, it may also have been used to raise water to the platforms of the Assyrian palaces. The discovery, however, is usually attributed to the Sicilian mathematician, and STRABO’S evidence is too isolated and too recent to allow us to accept it without question. [33] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. ii. p. 197. [34] LOFTUS, _Travels and Researches_, chapter xvi. and especially page 179. [35] DIODORUS, ii. viii. 3–4. [36] DIODORUS, ii. viii. 7. [37] OPPERT, _Expédition scientifique de Mésopotamie_, vol. i. p. 150. See also LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 508, upon the tradition of the Arabs relating to the tall tamarisk, the only tree that grows on the summit of the mound. [38] J. MÉNANT, _Babylon et la Chaldée_ (1 vol. 8vo. 1875), p. 181.