Digital Logos Edition
In 705 BC, Sennacherib built the largest palace of his time in the newly-established Assyrian capital, Nineveh. Austin Henry Layard carefully examined the Nineveh findings and called in architecture experts from across Europe. Together, Layard and his army of experts pieced together their discoveries to create a detailed picture of this remarkable palace at the peak of its glory. The Nineveh Court in the Crystal Palace presents an intricate reconstruction of an important archeological discovery.
Be sure to check out Austen Henry Layard Collection (10 vols.).
Austen Henry Layard (1817–1894) was born in Paris, but he traveled often in his youth. He was educated in Italy, England, Switzerland, and France. After spending six years working for his uncle’s law firm, he left to travel and explore the Middle East. After his first successful excavations at Kuyunjik and Nimrud, Layard continued his archeological explorations at the ruins of Babylon and the mounds of southern Mesopotamia. (Many of the specimens that he found make up a large part of the British Museum’s collection of Assyrian antiquities.) Layard then returned to England, where he took up a life of politics, serving as under-secretary for foreign affairs and ambassador at Constantinople. Layard retired in Italy, where he continued to write about Italian art and penned the popular account of his earliest travels, Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia.