The oldest form of architecture in these Eastern parts was probably that which existed in Babylon: but the absence of stone in that country reduced the inhabitants to the necessity of using bricks only, and for the most part bricks burnt by the sun, though sometimes fire-burnt brickwork is also found. The face of the walls so constructed was ornamented with paintings, either on plaster or enamelled on the bricks, whilst the constructive portions and roofs were of wood. All this perishable material has of course disappeared, and nothing now remains even of the Babylon built by Nebuchadnezzar but formless mounds of brickwork. In the more northern kingdom of Assyria, the existence of stone and marble secured a wainscoting of sculptured slabs for the palace walls, whilst great winged bulls and giant figures, also in stone, adorned the portals and façades. The pillars, however, which supported the roofs, and the roofs themselves, were all of wood, generally of cedar, and these having been destroyed by fire or by the lapse of ages, nothing remains to tell of their actual size and form. Yet we are not left entirely to conjecture in respect of them. Susa and Persepolis in Persia--the followers and imitators of Nineveh--arose in districts where stone was abundant, and we find that the structures in these cities had not only stone pillars to support the roof, but also stone jambs in the doorways, thus affording an unmistakeable clue to the nature of such portions of building as are wanting to complete our knowledge of the architecture of the Assyrian people. As now laid bare to us, the Assyrian style of architecture differs essentially from any other with which we have hitherto been made acquainted. Its main characteristics are enormously thick mud-brick walls, covered with painted bas-reliefs, and roofs supported internally by slight but elegant wooden columns, ornamented with volutes (spiral mouldings), and the elegant honeysuckle ornament which was afterwards introduced through Ionia into Greece--this Assyrian style being, according to some, the parent of the Ionic order, as the Egyptian was of the Doric order, of Greece. The very greatest interest attaches to these architectural remains, and to the records cut in enduring stone, which they have handed down to us, inasmuch as they corroborate, in a most remarkable manner, certain statements in the Bible connected with Jewish History. There can be little doubt that the Assyrians and Jews sprang from the same stock; and no one can fail to remark that the physiognomy of the Assyrians, as pourtrayed in these sculptures, bears a strong resemblance to the Israelitish visage. As far as we can judge from descriptions, the architecture of ancient Jerusalem was almost identical with that of Assyria. [Illustration: Entrance to the Nineveh Court.]