During the first years of their labours the excavators were under the impression that the destruction of the older portions of the city by Sennacherib had been so complete that but few of its remains were to be looked for in the course of excavation. But as time progressed it was found that the relics of the older quarters lay mostly beneath the present water-level. In the Menkes Mound a quarter of the ancient city has been unearthed at a depth of some thirty feet, and the outline of its streets clearly shown. Still lower were found houses dating from the period of Merodach-baladan I (1201-1189 B.C.) and Meli-shipok II (1216-1202 B.C.). A thick layer of ashes showed that a still earlier portion of the city had been destroyed by fire, and this archaic quarter has been identified as the city of Khammurabi, the princely law-maker (2123-2081 B.C.), and his immediate successors, according to dated tablets found among the burnt debris--mute witnesses of the disaster which overtook Babylon's First Dynasty. Town-Planning It is noticeable that the later streets follow closely the trend and plan of the older thoroughfares, which, generally speaking, ran north and south, parallel to the course of the Sacred Way. Professor King[9] gives it as his opinion that here we have a deliberate attempt at town-planning on a scientific basis! He credits this to the Semitic element in the population, as in Sumerian towns there is no trace of town-planning. And yet Babylon was strangely conservative. As she commenced, so she continued, and her early efforts were only superseded in magnitude, not in quality of purpose. [1] But _cf._ 1 Kings xix 16, _ff_.; 2 Kings ix and x. [2] _Explorations in Bible Lands_ (T. and T. Clark, 1903). [3] _Assyrian Discoveries_, p. 9 (London, 1875). [4] _Assyrian Discoveries_, p. 148 (London, 1875). [5] _Explorations in Bible Lands_ (T. and T. Clark, 1903). [6] Hilprecht, _Explorations in Bible Lands_, p. 232 (T. and T. Clark, 1903). [7] _Explorations in Bible Lands_ (T. and T. Clark, 1903). [8] _History of Babylon_, p. 50 (1915). [9] _History of Babylon_, p. 85. CHAPTER XV: THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS With the fall of the Assyrian empire in 606 B.C., Babylonia once more regained her national status. This meant that her national god Merodach was no longer subservient to the Assyrian Asshur in a political sense, and regained his place as sole head of the Babylonian pantheon.