{"it":{"id":"MES-004","kind":"site","sub":"Mesopotamia and Iran","name":"Nineveh","place":"Iraq; Sasanian Empire","lat":36.359,"lon":43.153,"date":"It was the largest city in the world for approximately fifty years until the year 612…","mat":"clay;earth;limestone;marble;mudbrick","nfacts":26,"tags":["Near East"],"sum":"In the ruins of Nineveh, on the Tigris in what is now Mosul, Iraq, archaeologists found the library of King Ashurbanipal: about 22,000 clay tablets and fragments, among them the best-known copy of the Epic of Gilgamesh.","why":"A library smashed by its conquerors gave the modern world Gilgamesh and a flood story older than Genesis.","src":[365],"nsrc":2,"yt":"Without one smashed library, what would we know of Gilgamesh?","rel":["MES-003","MES-007"],"hook":"In 1872 George Smith found a flood story on a Nineveh tablet, with a dove and a raven sent out to find land."},"S":{"365":["Wikipedia: Nineveh","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineveh"]},"rec":{"id":"MES-004","alias":[],"ms":[{"f":"and the Khosr Rivers within an area of","a":"area","v":"750","u":"ha","o":"The remains of ancient Nineveh, the areas of Kuyunjiq and Nabī Yūnus with their mounds, are located on a level part of the plain at the junction of the Tigris and the Khosr Rivers within an area of 750 ha REF10 circumscribed by a 12 km fortification wall.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2011"},{"f":"area of 750 ha REF10 circumscribed by a","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"12","u":"km","o":"The remains of ancient Nineveh, the areas of Kuyunjiq and Nabī Yūnus with their mounds, are located on a level part of the plain at the junction of the Tigris and the Khosr Rivers within an area of 750 ha REF10 circumscribed by a 12 km fortification wall.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2012"},{"f":"between 4500 and 4000 BC it grew to","a":"area","v":"40","u":"hectares","o":"During the period between 4500 and 4000 BC it grew to 40 hectares in size.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2013"},{"f":"of limestone blocks and mud bricks it was","a":"height","v":"22","u":"m","o":"The solid foundation was made out of limestone blocks and mud bricks; it was 22 m tall.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2014"},{"f":"made out of mud brick were an additional","a":"height","v":"20","u":"m","o":"The walls on top, made out of mud brick, were an additional 20 m tall.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2015"},{"f":"colossal stone lamassu door figures weighing up to","a":"mass","v":"30000","u":"kg","o":"Some of the principal doorways were flanked by colossal stone lamassu door figures weighing up to 30000 kg; these were winged Mesopotamian lions REF26 or bulls, with human heads.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2016"},{"f":"These were transported","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"50","u":"km","o":"These were transported 50 km from quarries at Balatai, and they had to be lifted up 20 m once they arrived at the site, presumably by a ramp.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2017"},{"f":"Balatai and they had to be lifted up","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"20","u":"m","o":"These were transported 50 km from quarries at Balatai, and they had to be lifted up 20 m once they arrived at the site, presumably by a ramp.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2018"},{"f":"There are also","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"3000","u":"m","o":"There are also 3000 m of stone Assyrian palace reliefs, that include pictorial records documenting every construction step including carving the statues and transporting them on a barge.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2019"},{"f":"At this time Nineveh comprised about","a":"area","v":"7","u":"km2","o":"At this time, Nineveh comprised about 7 km2 of land, and fifteen great gates penetrated its walls.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2020"},{"f":"erected by Sennacherib were discovered at Jerwan about","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"65","u":"km","o":"An elaborate system of eighteen canals brought water from the hills to Nineveh, and several sections of a magnificently constructed aqueduct erected by Sennacherib were discovered at Jerwan, about 65 km distant.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2021"},{"f":"upon the ruins of a building at the","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"20","u":"km","o":"While at Tell Kuyunjiq he had little success, the locals whom he employed in these excavations, to their great surprise, came upon the ruins of a building at the 20 km far-away mound of Khorsabad, which, on further exploration, turned out to be the royal palace of Sargon II, in which large numbers of reliefs were found and recorded, though they had been damaged by fire and were mostly too fragile to remove.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2022"},{"f":"and the remains of the city walls about","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"12","u":"km","o":"The site is marked by two large mounds, Tell Kuyunjiq and Tell Nabī Yūnus \"Prophet Jonah\", and the remains of the city walls (about 12 km in circumference), enclosing a vast lower town extensively encroached by modern buildings.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2023"},{"f":"Tell Nebi Yunus is located about","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"1","u":"km","o":"Tell Nebi Yunus is located about 1 km south of Kuyunjiq and is the secondary ruin mound at Nineveh.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2024"},{"f":"About","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"12","u":"km","o":"About 12 km in length, the wall system consisted of an ashlar stone retaining wall about 6 m high surmounted by a mudbrick wall about 10 m high and 15 m thick.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2025"},{"f":"consisted of an ashlar stone retaining wall about","a":"height","v":"6","u":"m","o":"About 12 km in length, the wall system consisted of an ashlar stone retaining wall about 6 m high surmounted by a mudbrick wall about 10 m high and 15 m thick.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2026"},{"f":"m high surmounted by a mudbrick wall about","a":"height","v":"10","u":"m","o":"About 12 km in length, the wall system consisted of an ashlar stone retaining wall about 6 m high surmounted by a mudbrick wall about 10 m high and 15 m thick.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2027"},{"f":"a mudbrick wall about 10 m high and","a":"thickness","v":"15","u":"m","o":"About 12 km in length, the wall system consisted of an ashlar stone retaining wall about 6 m high surmounted by a mudbrick wall about 10 m high and 15 m thick.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2028"},{"f":"wall had projecting stone towers spaced about every","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"18","u":"m","o":"The stone retaining wall had projecting stone towers spaced about every 18 m.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2029"},{"f":"water from the Tigris which currently flows about","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"1.5","u":"km","o":"* Mashki Gate was perhaps used to take livestock to water from the Tigris which currently flows about 1.5 km to the west.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2030"},{"f":"REF82 It has been reexcavated including a","a":"depth","v":"7","u":"m","o":"REF82 It has been reexcavated (including a 7 m deep stair-well), conservated and presented to the public by the Iraqi-Italian expedition between 2019 and 2023.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2031"},{"f":"of main wall for a width of about","a":"width","v":"70","u":"m","o":"The stone wall projects outward about 20 m from the line of main wall for a width of about 70 m.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2032"},{"f":"passage had been narrowed with mudbrick to about","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"2","u":"m","o":"The entry passage had been narrowed with mudbrick to about 2 m as at the Adad Gate.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2033"},{"f":"next to a spectacular water tunnel running for","a":"thickness","v":"42","u":"m","o":"* A new gate was discovered in 2021 to the north of the Shamash Gate and south of the Khosr river (in the area labeled as N by the Iraqi-Italian expedition), next to a spectacular water tunnel running for 42 m under the 31m-thick city wall (area G, excavated in 2020 and 2021).","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2034"},{"f":"water tunnel running for 42 m under the","a":"thickness","v":"31","u":"m","o":"* A new gate was discovered in 2021 to the north of the Shamash Gate and south of the Khosr river (in the area labeled as N by the Iraqi-Italian expedition), next to a spectacular water tunnel running for 42 m under the 31m-thick city wall (area G, excavated in 2020 and 2021).","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2035"},{"f":"entire site could be under as much as","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"45","u":"ft","o":"If the dam fails, the entire site could be under as much as 45 ft of water.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381908682 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2036"}],"lab":[{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"The solid foundation was made out of limestone blocks and mud bricks; it was 22 m tall.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682"},{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"The British archaeologist and Assyriologist Professor David Stronach of the University of California, Berkeley conducted a series of surveys and digs at the site from 1987 to 1990, focusing his attentions on the several gates and the existent mudbrick walls, as well as the system that supplied water to the city in times of siege.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682"},{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"REF75 Later in June 2026, a six-foot-tall marble stele next to one of the gates was discovered by a team of archaeologists.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682"}],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[],"dat":[],"aa":[],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"sub":[],"site":{"age":"It was the largest city in the world for approximately fifty years until the year 612 BC when, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria, it was sacked by a coalition of its former subject peoples including the Babylonians, Medes, and Scythians.","dm":"[see dating_excerpt; method not extracted]","lab":"NO: inference only (style/context/king list/textual)","weak":"no direct lab result on the structure in our records; date from stylistic, contextual or textual inference","unesco":"","dens":"CENSUS"},"co":{"lat":"36.35944444","lon":"43.15277778","src":"Wikidata P625 only + curated wave0 value agrees","agree":"agree","b":"V","note":"two independent sources agree; max delta 0.0094 deg (~1.04 km)","osm":"https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/202644722"},"src":[{"id":"S0356","t":"no inline ref in article","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=1381908682"},{"id":"S0561","t":"Wikipedia: Nineveh","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineveh"},{"id":"VMES-004-3","t":"George Smith, The Chaldean Account of the Deluge (Wikisource)","u":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Chaldean_Account_of_the_Deluge"},{"id":"VMES-004-4","t":"British Museum: What was Ashurbanipal's library?","u":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/projects/what-was-ashurbanipals-library"},{"id":null,"t":"George Smith, The Chaldean Account of Genesis (London: Sampson Low, 1876). Internet Archive.","u":"https://archive.org/details/chaldeanaccount00smitrich"},{"id":null,"t":"British Museum, Collection Online, “The Flood Tablet”, K.3375.","u":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_K-3375"},{"id":null,"t":"Genesis 8, King James Version. Bible Gateway.","u":"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%208&version=KJV"},{"id":null,"t":"Nick Liguori, “The Myth of the Flood Myth”, Answers in Genesis (29 April 2022).","u":"https://answersingenesis.org/the-flood/flood-legends/myth-flood-myth/"},{"id":null,"t":"British Museum, Collection Online, Atrahasis tablet, museum number 78943 (1889,0426.236).","u":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1889-0426-236"},{"id":null,"t":"The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Cuneiform tablet: Atra-hasis, Babylonian flood myth”, 86.11.378a.","u":"https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/321999"}],"sum":"In its last days, the defenders of Nineveh walled up their own gates. At the Halzi Gate, on the eastern side of the city, they narrowed the passage with fresh mud brick to about 2 metres, just wide enough for a few men to hold. At the Adad Gate the same hasty brickwork can still be seen. It did not save them. In 612 BC a coalition of the empire's former subjects, Babylonians, Medes and Scythians among them, broke in after bitter fighting from house to house. Excavators found human remains from that final battle lying in the Halzi passageway. For about fifty years before that day, Nineveh had been the largest city in the world.\n\nNineveh stands on the eastern bank of the Tigris, opposite the old centre of Mosul in northern Iraq, where the Khosr River joins it. Its ruins cover about 750 hectares inside a fortification wall some 12 kilometres around, and about a third of that area now lies under the eastern suburbs of Mosul. Two great mounds rise inside the walls. Tell Kuyunjiq, about 20 metres high and 800 by 500 metres across, holds the palaces of the Assyrian kings; a deep sounding there found people living on the spot as early as the sixth millennium BC. Tell Nebi Yunus, a kilometre to the south, carried a shrine to the prophet Jonah, who, in the Bible and the Quran, preached to Nineveh.\n\nThe city's great age came with the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and above all with King Sennacherib, around 700 BC. He laid out new streets and squares and built the South West Palace, which he called the \"palace without a rival,\" about 503 by 242 metres, with at least 80 rooms, many lined with carved stone reliefs; Layard, who rediscovered it in 1849, counted 71. Its foundation of limestone blocks and mud brick stood 22 metres tall. Colossal lamassu, winged bulls and lions with human heads weighing up to 30 tonnes, flanked its doors. They were hauled 50 kilometres from quarries at Balatai and lifted 20 metres onto the platform, presumably by ramp. Some 3,000 metres of reliefs show the work step by step, carving the statues and moving them by barge, with long lines of men on the tow ropes.\n\nSennacherib's Nineveh covered about 7 square kilometres, with fifteen great gates. Eighteen canals brought water from the hills, and sections of his aqueduct survive at Jerwan, about 65 kilometres away. More than 100,000 people lived inside the walls, maybe closer to 150,000, about twice as many as in Babylon at the time; the Book of Jonah gives \"more than 120,000.\" The Oxford Assyriologist Stephanie Dalley argues that the garden Sennacherib built beside his palace, with its waterworks, was the original Hanging Gardens of Babylon.\n\nThe palace walls are also a record of power used without mercy. The reliefs show battles, impalings and the spoils of war paraded before the king. Of Babylon, Sennacherib boasted, \"with their corpses I filled the streets of the city.\" The finest set shows the siege of Lachish in 701 BC. Nineveh was built on tribute and fear, and when the empire split in civil war after the death of Ashurbanipal, around 627 BC, its former subjects came for it.\n\nAshurbanipal, who reigned from 668 to 631 BC, left the city its most lasting treasure: a library. The British Museum records that its tablets were dug from Nineveh's palaces between 1851 and 1932 and holds more than 30,000 of them; Layard's account gives about 22,000 tablets. Among them is the best-known copy of the Epic of Gilgamesh. For a long time it was said that the fire of 612 BC baked the clay hard and preserved it. The British Museum's own Ashurbanipal Library project found something harsher. The conquerors sifted the library and then deliberately smashed it, dumping the pieces around the palaces. No record was kept of where each fragment lay, so the library can be rebuilt only in part.\n\nFrom that rubble came one of the great discoveries of the nineteenth century. In 1872 George Smith, sorting fragments at the British Museum, found half of a tablet telling of a ship that came to rest on the mountains of Nizir, and of birds sent out to find land. \"I saw at once that I had here discovered a portion at least of the Chaldean account of the Deluge,\" he wrote. A dove went out and came back, then a swallow. Then, \"I sent forth a raven and it left.\" The raven saw the waters falling, ate, wandered away \"and did not return.\" Readers of Genesis knew the scene. Noah too \"sent forth a raven,\" and a dove that \"found no rest for the sole of her foot.\" Smith read his paper on 3 December 1872, and the Daily Telegraph paid to send him back to Nineveh, where he found another piece of the story. The flood tablet, K.3375, is about 15 by 13 centimetres. The British Museum calls it \"the single most famous cuneiform text.\"\n\nThe mainstream view is that the flood story is Mesopotamian and old. A tablet from Sippar telling the story of Atrahasis, \"hero of the Babylonian flood story,\" dates to 1635 BC, and Smith himself dated the original no later than the seventeenth century BC. Scholars still debate how the Mesopotamian and biblical stories are related, and through whom. Some writers, among them Nick Liguori for Answers in Genesis, argue for an older shared record behind both, but no such text has been found.\n\nNineveh's ruin did not end in 612 BC. Repairs, Greek cults and Parthian coins show later life, and the place survived as a Christian town until it was absorbed into Mosul. Its modern ordeal came when the Islamic State held the area from 2014 to 2017. On 24 July 2014 its fighters destroyed the shrine of Jonah. They smashed statues in the Mosul Museum, defaced the lamassu of the Nergal Gate with a jackhammer, and bulldozed the Mashki, Nergal and Adad gates. Their tunnels under Nebi Yunus, explored after Mosul's liberation in 2018, led archaeologists into an Assyrian military palace below the mosque. In June 2026 a team found a six-foot marble stele beside one of the gates, its inscription thought to record Ashurbanipal's building works. If the Mosul Dam ever fails, the site could lie under as much as 45 feet of water.\n\nWhat remains open is how much was lost and how much is still there. Smith warned that thousands of fragments were still in the ground. Parts of Gilgamesh are still missing, and nobody knows where the flood story itself began, or what memory lay behind the scribe of Sippar, who was copying, not inventing.\n\nTwice, men set out to wipe Nineveh away. The conquerors of 612 BC broke its library into pieces, and those pieces became the reason we know its stories. What else, buried in the rubble they left, is still waiting to outlast the people who tried to destroy it?","qs":["Without one smashed library, what would we know of Gilgamesh?","If two flood stories share a dove and a raven, what explains the overlap?","Who should hold the tablets: the museum that catalogued them, or the country where they were found?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Nineveh_-_Mashki_Gate.jpg/1280px-Nineveh_-_Mashki_Gate.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nineveh_-_Mashki_Gate.jpg","title":"Nineveh - Mashki Gate.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"Omar Siddeeq Yousif","cap":"Nineveh - Mashki Gate"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/2018_Ashurbanipal_-_Nineveh.jpg/1280px-2018_Ashurbanipal_-_Nineveh.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2018_Ashurbanipal_-_Nineveh.jpg","title":"2018 Ashurbanipal - Nineveh.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 2.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0","by":"Anthony Huan","cap":"2018 Ashurbanipal - Nineveh"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/British_Museum_Middle_east_14022019_Beveled_rim_bowl_Nineveh_Late_Uruk_Period_3672.jpg/1280px-British_Museum_Middle_east_14022019_Beveled_rim_bowl_Nineveh_Late_Uruk_Period_3672.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Museum_Middle_east_14022019_Beveled_rim_bowl_Nineveh_Late_Uruk_Period_3672.jpg","title":"British Museum Middle east 14022019 Beveled rim bowl Nineveh Late Uruk Period 3672.jpg","lic":"CC0","licurl":"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en","by":"Vassil","cap":"Beveled rim bowl. Clay, from Nineveh, Late Uruk Period, 3300-3100 BC. British Museum, room 56, ME 138746."},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Fall_of_nineveh.jpg/1280px-Fall_of_nineveh.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fall_of_nineveh.jpg","title":"Fall of nineveh.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"(Mu-tamajo) むーたんじょ","cap":"John Martin, C.E.1829 (H.E.11,829)"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Humvee_down_after_isis_attack.jpg/1280px-Humvee_down_after_isis_attack.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Humvee_down_after_isis_attack.jpg","title":"Humvee down after isis attack.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"Omar Siddeeq Yousif","cap":"Humvee down after Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant attack in Mosul, Iraq 2014-06-14"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"612 BC","h":"Year the world's largest city was sacked","s":[110]},{"v":"50","u":"km","h":"Distance colossal statues were moved, then raised 20 m","s":[110]},{"v":"3,000","u":"m","h":"Of palace reliefs, some depicting how the colossi were carved and hauled","s":[110]},{"v":"Clay","h":"Made of: Clay, earth, limestone, marble, mudbrick","s":[110]}],"hs":{"110":["Wikipedia: Nineveh (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineveh"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/MES-004.webp","w":1280,"h":875,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Nineveh_-_Mashki_Gate.jpg/1280px-Nineveh_-_Mashki_Gate.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}