Three building periods can be recognised here (Fig. 245). Of the earliest building only the 7 lower courses remain. The ground-plan is in the main the same as that of the later building that rests upon it, but the wall fronts everywhere deviate slightly from the lines of the latter. The pavement of the later building consists of one plain layer, that lies almost at the level at which the walls begin. The gypsum wash still adheres to the walls. At several of the more important places, such as the main entrance to the temple, the entrance from the court to the cella, the cella door, and the postament niche, instead of a gypsum wash there is a thin wash of black asphalt, which near the edges is broken with ornamental vertical lines of white gypsum. Similar decorations, though not so well preserved and recognisable, were visible in temple “Z,” and in the temples of Ninib and Ninmach. These portions stood out from the white walls with mysterious and startling effect. The temple was raised and a new double pavement of Nebuchadnezzar bricks was laid at a height of 4 to 4½ metres above zero. To this pavement, of course, all the brick caskets belong which lay close to the pavement of the earlier periods but above it, as, for instance, the casket in the door from the court to the cella. An additional raising with a new brick pavement at 5 metres above zero, belongs apparently to a rebuilding undertaken by Nabonidus, according to the inscription on his foundation cylinder which was found here. The cylinder lay at about the height of the last-mentioned pavement, in the middle of the northern enclosing wall, between the first two pillars on the west, and exactly at the place where it was deposited by Nabonidus. It stood upright in a sort of basket of plaited work, of which the remains were still quite recognisable, and which had formerly shielded it from damage in the small aperture within the mud-brick wall. In the inscription the king speaks of the ruinous condition of this “Temple of Ishtar of Agade,” and the work undertaken by him for its restoration. The building was surrounded by a kisu of Nebuchadnezzar bricks which reaches down as far as 3.6 metres above zero, and which must therefore belong to one of the later rebuildings. A water conduit constructed on the south side (W in the plan), similar to that in the Ninib temple, was walled up by the kisu. XLVIII THE GREEK THEATRE Close to the inner city walls on the east there lies a group of mounds which on account of their reddish colour are called “Homera” by the Arabs (Fig. 249). Of these we have examined a northern, a central, and a southern mound, somewhat carefully, and find that from top to bottom they all are artificial heaps of broken burnt brick. Of their origin we will speak later (p. 308 _et seq._).