Ninurta temple (Kalhu)

Reade 2002 (p. 192) describes the relationship between the Ninurta and Šarrat-nipḫi temples as Kalhu as follows: “The Šarrat Nipḫi shrine was so close to the Ninurta shrine area that the two must be regarded as parts of a single temple complex comparable with that at Dūr-Šarrukēn (Fig. 39). Layard (Ms D, 36) stated that "no remains of building [were] discovered between [the shrines] ... the interval appears to have been paved with bricks, mostly having the name of the founder of the N.W. Palace". This implies that both shrines faced a single courtyard, but his use of the word "appears" shows that he did not establish this, and he probably relied on the existence of pavements in front of both. The Layard and the Mallowan/Sobolewski plans, Figs. 20, 23, give different versions of the relationship between the northern wall of the courtyard adjoining the Ninurta complex and the southern wall of the Šarrat Nipḫi complex, but on both plans the two walls are inappropriately positioned to have faced a single courtyard, even though Assyrian courtyards were not strictly rectangular. Either the plans are misleading and the shrines did face a single courtyard, or there were two courtyards separated by a gate-chamber: a Ninurta Court, with the Ninurta complex on its western side, and a separate Sarrat Nipḫi Court further east, which had the shrine of this goddess on its northern side. The question should be easily resolved in the field, but at present the evidence seems evenly balanced. The reconstruction in Fig. 2 adopts the arrangement with separate courtyards.”