calah Summary and Overview

one of the most ancient cities of Assyria. "Out of that land he [i.e., Nimrod] went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah, and Resen" (Gen. 10:11, R.V.). Its site is now marked probably by the Nimrud ruins on the left bank of the Tigris. These cover an area of about 1,000 acres, and are second only in size and importance to the mass of ruins opposite Mosul. This city was at one time the capital of the empire, and was the residence of Sardanapalus and his successors down to the time of Sargon, who built a new capital, the modern Khorsabad. It has been conjectured that these four cities mentioned in Gen. 10:11 were afterwards all united into one and called Nineveh (q.v.).

(completion, old age), one of the most ancient cities of Assyria. #Ge 10:11| The site of Calah is probably market by the Nimrud ruins. If this be regarded as ascertained, Calah must be considered to have been at one time (about B.C. 930-720) the capital of the empire.

CA'LAH (old age), one of the oldest of Assyrian towns; founded by Nimrod, Gen 10:11, and probably for a time the capital of the Assyrian kingdom. Layard, Porter, and Kalisch locate it at ?Kileh-Shergbut?, on the Tigris, 40 miles below Nimroud, where there is a vast ruin 3 miles in circuit. The Rawlinsons, Geo. Smith, and others, place it at Nimroud, where are ruins covering about 1000 acres. They indicate a town in the form of an irregular quadrangle, surrounded by a wall, flanked with towers, and pierced with gates. The remains of palaces, temples, and a famous tower or pyramid form a mound of ruins, 600 yards long, with a cone 140 feet high. See Assyria and Armenia. CAL'AMUS Song of Solomon 4:14; Eze 27:19, or SWEET CALAMUS, Ex 30:23, or SWEET CANE, Isa 43:24; Jer 6:20, All probably names for the same plant. It seems to have been an aromatic reed brought ''from afar country." Lemon-grass (Andropogon) is ''a plant of remarkable fragrance and a native of Central India, where it CAL CAL is used to mix with ointments, on account of the delicacy of its odor." Calamus may have been a species of this.

A most ancient Assyrian city founded by Asshur (Genesis 10:11), or rather by Nimrod; for the right translation is, "out of that city (namely, Babel in Shinar) he (Nimrod) went forth to Asshur (Assyria E. of the Tigris) and builded Nineveh and Rehoboth-ir (i.e. city markets), and Calah and Rosen, ... the same is a great city." The four formed one "great" composite city, to which Nineveh, the name of one of the four in the restricted sense, was given; answering now to the ruins E. of the Tigris, Nebi Yunus, Koyunjik, Khorsabad, Nimrud. If Calah answer to Nimrud it was between 900 and 700 B.C. capital of the empire. The war-like Sardanapalus I and his successors resided here, down to Sargon, who built a new city and called it from his own name (now Khorsabad). Esarhaddon built there a grand palace. The district Calachene afterwards took its name from it.