E-kur, the temple of Bêl at Nippur, as restored on the basis of the discoveries of the University of Pennsylvania Exploration Fund, consists of two courts, an outer and an inner court. Within the inner court stands the _ziggurrat_, rising to a tower of three or four stages which the most devout pilgrims might perhaps ascend. At the top is an enclosed shrine in which is a statue of Bêl. Here Bêl and his consort, Bêlit, for Babylonian gods maintain family relations like human beings, are supposed to dwell. In figurines Bêl appears as an old man, dressed in royal robes, generally carrying a thunder-bolt in his hand (see N. II, 128). By the side of the _ziggurrat_ stands a temple for the use of the priests. We may assume on the whole, no doubt, that the assembly of pilgrims was confined chiefly to the outer court (see EBL. 470). Bêl was at first a local deity, but as the circumference of the political territory of which Nippur was the religious centre was enlarged, so Bêl’s cult was extended. Other cities included in the same political domain with Nippur, recognized Bêl as lord. Bêl was a sort of war god. Kings rivaled one another in courting his favor. The victorious king attributed his success to Bêl and brought the spoil to Bêl. The king of the south, whether of Lagaš, Erech or Ur, and the king of the north, whether of Kîš or Agade, always went to Nippur to celebrate his victory. In this way Bêl’s lordship came to be recognized as extending over all Babylonia and finally over Assyria. Ḥammurabi, king at Babylon, 2300 B. C., recognized “Bêl as lord of heaven and earth, who determines the destiny of the land”,[16] and Tiglath-pileser I. (about 1100 B. C.), the first great Assyrian conqueror, called Bêl “the father of the gods and Bêl of the lands”,[17] and speaks of himself as “appointed to dominion over the country of Bêl”.[18] The Semitic appropriation of En-lil involved some transformation in the conception of Bêl. Not to refer to Palestine, there were three Bêls; the Sumerian Bêl, the Semitic Bêl and the new Bêl or Marduk, who, however, was really a different god. The Babylonian Bêl, either in the mind of the Sumerian, of the Babylonian or of the Assyrian, always had his seat at Nippur. Under Semitic influence Bêl became lord of the world. He was one in the hierarchy of three who ruled the universe; viz., Anu, the lord of the heavens, Bêl, the lord of the earth, and Ea, the lord of the deep. The Sumerian name, En-lil, made Bêl the “lord of fulness”. The Semitic name Bêl emphasized the fact of his lordship, and the name of his temple, E-kur, “house of the mountain”, marked out the scope of his lordship. The earth was conceived of as a mountain resting on the abyss, and the temple with its _ziggurrat_ was built to rise up like a mountain out of the deep. The people could stand in the court of the temple at Nippur and say of the mountain-like structure: