The Ship of Ishtar

A classic of fantasy that transports the reader back sixty centuries to mystery and romance beyond compare. The hero, John Kenton, received a queer block unearthed in the ruins of Ancient Babylon. It is inscribed with a record of Sargon of Akkad.
An unaccountable conviction possesses Kenton that the stone imprisons some hidden wonder. He strikes it--and as it disintegrates, a miniature craft of elfin enchantment burgeons forth. And as the motes from the cloud of dust envelop him he undergoes a metamorphosis; is projected onto The Ship, where he encounters Sharane--willow-lithe, flame-slender . . . goddess, temptress, woman.
The ensuing adventures in the long and long ago cast a thrall over the reader with their vivid action and unparalleded beauty. A novel limned in lapis lazuli, that will hold you ensorcelled with the word wizardry and evocative imagery of A. Merritt, the Lord of Fantasy.