4 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Last Assyrian Capital “Ninive”

Ninive is an ancient Assyrian city located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River in northern Iraq, near today’s Mosul city.

The Assyrian Empire has existed since the early 25th century BC, and the Early Assyrian Period (2500–2025 BC), the Old Assyrian Empire (2025-1378 BC), the Middle Assyrian Empire (1392-934 BC) and the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-609 BC) divided into periods.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the region around Nineveh was first inhabited by the Hassuna culture, the first farmers in northern Mesopotamia to live in small villages or hamlets in the late Neolithic period around 6000 BC.

Ninive is also the city where Prophet Yunus was buried. It is believed to be the tomb of the Prophet Yunus in the place also called Nebi Yunus Hill. Unfortunately, it has been devastated by Isid attacks.

During the old Assyrian period, the city was dedicated to the goddess Ishtar. Ishtar is the goddess of beauty and love.

Ninive experienced a great architectural expansion during the period of the new Assyrian kings and turned into a metropolis.

ninive garden
Bettmann Archive

Ninive is the last capital of the Assyrian Empire. Before becoming the capital city BC. In the 2000s, it was an important city for Assur with its Ishtar temple.

King II. Sargon’s son Sanherib (704-681 BC) moved the capital from Dur Sharrukin to Ninive as soon as his father died. No doubt that this The who built Dur-Sharrukin from scratch It is like an insult to Sargon.

Ninive is on the most convenient and most used of Tigris passes. This old town is almost twice as big as Kalhu and Dur Sharrukin.

Ninive Mashki gate
Ninive Mashki gate

King Sanherib gave importance to development as his grandfathers did. First of all, opened a 90 km channel to increase the yield in the fields and he established gardens. This channel is 300 km long and wide 25 m. It was crossing the Jervan valley with a five-eyed aqueduct. The king opened many more canals, moreover, he created a swamp next to the city to prevent the waste of water brought by these canals. Sanherib, who turned the inside to the swamp into a cane, turned this cane into a bird paradise.

Ninive continued to flourish until the death of its last great king, Ashurbanipal. The new Assyrian empire entered a period of decline due to the civil wars over the claimants to the throne and the attacks of the former vassal Kingdoms, which included Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Scythians, and Cimmerians.

In 612 BC, the city was besieged and plundered, causing the population to be massacred or deported, and the Assyrian empire eventually collapsed in 609 BC.

The city changed hands among several rulers from the Achaemenid Empire, Seleucid Empire, Parthian Empire and Sassanid Empire over the next 1000 years. It was conquered by the Arabs in 641 AD.

Over the following centuries, Nineveh was downsized as a neglected suburb and left to ruined at the end of the 13th century AD. In 2015, IS destroyed the Ninive Mashki Gate, Adad Gates and parts of the city walls.

Related Articles

In Lake Mendota, Wisconsin archaeologists discover the oldest canoe ever found in the Great Lakes region

23 September 2022

23 September 2022

A group of divers from Madison, Wisconsin’s Lake Mendota emerged on Thursday carrying a remarkable piece of history for the...

Archaeology team discovers a 7,000-year-old and 13-hectare settlement in Serbia

30 April 2024

30 April 2024

Researchers have discovered a previously unknown Late Neolithic settlement near the Tamiš River in Northeast Serbia. The discovery was made...

New Discoveries on the İsland of Skokholm

29 March 2021

29 March 2021

New discoveries dating back 9000 years have been found in Skokholm, located in the Celtic Sea two miles off the...

Kurt Tepesi: The Silent Sentinel in the Shadows of Göbeklitepe and Karahan Tepe – Unearthing the Forgotten Sister

31 May 2025

31 May 2025

In the arid plains of southeastern Anatolia, a quiet giant slumbers. While Göbekli Tepe has dazzled archaeologists and the global...

2000-year-old dagger reveals the site of a long-forgotten battle between the Roman Empire and tribal warriors

16 December 2023

16 December 2023

In Switzerland, a volunteer archaeologist and dental student Lucas Schmid discovered in 2019 a 2000-year-old silver and brass dagger. It...

Megalithic structure found in Kazakhstan was probably a place of worship for miners in the Bronze Age

2 September 2024

2 September 2024

Archaeologists investigating a megalithic monument in the Burabay district of the Akmola region of Kazakhstan have revealed that the monument...

Archaeologists discovered the monastery of Queen Cynethryth, a strong Anglo-Saxon queen

19 August 2021

19 August 2021

Archaeologists from the University of Reading and local volunteers excavating on the grounds of Holy Trinity Church have made an...

A stone bathtub, which is considered to be the first example of ‘water birth’, was found in Ani Ruins

7 September 2022

7 September 2022

A stone tub was found in the large bath, whose birth was mentioned in a work by the Turkish scholar...

Extraordinary discovery in France: An unlooted 1800-year-old Roman Sarcophagus discovered

27 September 2023

27 September 2023

Archaeologists from France’s National Institute of Preventive Archeology (INRAP) have unearthed an unlooted ancient stone sarcophagus in the vast ancient...

Archaeologists Reconstruct the Face of a 7th-Century Anglo-Saxon Woman Buried with “Trumpington Cross”

21 June 2023

21 June 2023

In a remarkable archaeological discovery near Cambridge, England, the face of a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon woman buried with a rare gold...

Earliest Known East Anglian Gold Coin Found: A Fusion of Pagan and Christian Imagery

12 June 2025

12 June 2025

A rare gold coin dating back to the early Anglo-Saxon period has been discovered near Norwich, UK, by a metal...

Stunning carved stone depicting a mystery naked horseman is discovered at the Roman fort of Vindolanda

30 June 2021

30 June 2021

Near Hadrian’s Wall in northern England, archaeologists discovered a carved sandstone slab portraying a naked horseman. During the annual excavations...

The Only Known Roman Brewery, Discovered in Central Italy

6 July 2024

6 July 2024

Archaeologists from the University of Macerata have discovered the only brewery from the Roman era found to date on the...

Illegal digs reveal rare Roman-era mass grave in Turkey

28 July 2022

28 July 2022

A total of 27 skeletons were found in a burial pit carved into the rocks in Adıyaman province, an important...

The Headless Corpses of Somersham was Victims of Roman Executions

30 May 2021

30 May 2021

Excavations at Knobb’s Farm in Somersham, Cambridgeshire, unearthed three small late Roman graves on the outskirts of an agricultural village....