NINEVEH
![](nineveh.jpg)
Nineveh
![](640px-Nineveh_-_Mashki_Gate.jpg)
The
reconstructed Mashki Gate of Nineveh (since destroyed by ISIL)
Nineveh |
Location |
Mosul,
Nineveh Governorate, Iraq |
Region |
Mesopotamia |
Coordinates |
36°21'34
N 43°09'10 E |
Type |
Settlement |
Area |
7.5
km2 (2.9 sq mi) |
History |
Abandoned |
612
BC |
Events |
Battle
of Nineveh (612 BC) |
|
Nineveh
(Arabic: Naynawa; Romanized: Ninwe; Akkadian: URUNI.NU.A Ninua)
was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located on the
outskirts of Mosul in modern-day northern Iraq. It is located on
the eastern bank of the Tigris River and was the capital and largest
city of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, as well as the largest city in
the world for several decades. Today, it is a common name for the
half of Mosul that lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and the
country's Nineveh Governorate takes its name from it.
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, Persians, Scythians and Cimmerians.
The city was never again a political or administrative centre, but
by Late Antiquity it was the seat of a Christian bishop. It declined
relative to Mosul during the Middle Ages and was mostly abandoned
by the 13th century AD.
Its
ruins lie across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul,
in Iraq's Nineveh Governorate. The two main tells, or mound-ruins,
within the walls are Tell Kuyunjiq and Tell Nabi Yunus, site of
a shrine to Jonah, the prophet who preached to Nineveh. Large amounts
of Assyrian sculpture and other artifacts have been excavated there
and are now located in museums around the world.
Name
:
![](640px-Artist%92s_impression_of_Assyrian_palaces_from_The_Monuments_of_Nineveh_by_Sir_Austen_Henry_Layard,_1853.jpg)
Artist's
impression of Assyrian palaces from The Monuments of Nineveh by
Sir Austen Henry Layard, 1853
The English placename Nineveh comes from Latin Ninive and Septuagint
Greek Nineue under influence of the Biblical Hebrew Nineweh, from
the Akkadian Ninua (var. Ninâ) or Old Babylonian Ninuwa. The
original meaning of the name is unclear but may have referred to
a patron goddess. The cuneiform for Ninâ is a fish within
a house (cf. Aramaic nuna, "fish"). This may have simply
intended "Place of Fish" or may have indicated a goddess
associated with fish or the Tigris, possibly originally of Hurrian
origin. The city was later said to be devoted to "the goddess
Ishtar of Nineveh" and Nina was one of the Sumerian and Assyrian
names of that goddess.
The
city was also known as Ninuwa in Mari; Ninawa in Aramaic [clarification
needed] and Nainava in Persian.
Nabi
Yunus is the Arabic for "Prophet Jonah". Kuyunjiq was,
according to Layard, a Turkish name, and it was known as Armousheeah
by the Arabs, and is thought to have some connection with the Kara
Koyunlu dynasty. These toponyms refer to the areas to the North
and South of the Khosr stream, respectively: Kuyunjiq is the name
for the whole northern sector enclosed by the city walls and is
dominated by the large (35 ha) mound of Tell Kuyunjiq, while Nabi
(or more commonly Nebi) Yunus is the southern sector around of the
mosque of Prophet Yunus/Jonah, which is located on Tell Nebi Yunus.
Geography
:
![](Views_of_the_archaeological_site_of_Nineveh_in_modern-day_Mosul,_currently_occupied_by_squatters_06_(cropped).jpg)
View
of Nineveh in 2019
The remains of ancient Nineveh, the areas of Kuyunjiq and Nabi Yunus
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
hectares (1,900 acres) circumscribed by a 12-kilometre (7.5 mi)
fortification wall. This whole extensive space is now one immense
area of ruins overlaid by c. one third by the Nebi Yunus suburbs
of the city of eastern Mosul.
The
site of ancient Nineveh is bisected by the Khosr river. North of
the Khosr, the site is called Kuyunjiq, including the acropolis
of Tell Kuyunjiq; the illegal village of Rahmaniye lay in eastern
Kuyunjiq. South of the Khosr, the urbanized area is called Nebi
Yunus (also Ghazliya, Jezayr, Jammasa), including Tell Nebi Yunus
where the mosque of the Prophet Jonah and a palace of Asarhaddon/Ashurbanipal
below it are located. South of the street Al-'Asady (made by Daesh
destroying swaths of the city walls) the area is called Jounub Ninawah
or Shara Pepsi.
Nineveh
was an important junction for commercial routes crossing the Tigris
on the great roadway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian
Ocean, thus uniting the East and the West, it received wealth from
many sources, so that it became one of the greatest of all the region's
ancient cities, and the last capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
History
:
Early history :
![](416px-thumbnail.jpg)
Bronze
head of an Akkadian ruler, discovered in Nineveh in 1931, presumably
depicting Sargon of Akkad's son Manishtushu, c. 2270 BC, Iraq Museum.
Rijksmuseum van Oudheden
Nineveh was one of the oldest and greatest cities in antiquity.
The area it occupied was originally settled as early as 6000 BC
during the late Neolithic period. Deep sounding at Nineveh uncovered
soil layers that have been dated to early in the era of the Hassuna
archaeological culture.
By
3000 BC, the area had become an important religious center for the
Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar. The early city (and subsequent buildings)
was constructed on a fault line and, consequently, suffered damage
from a number of earthquakes. One such event destroyed the first
temple of Ishtar, which was rebuilt in 2260 BC by the Akkadian king
Manishtushu.
Texts
from the Hellenistic period later offered an eponymous Ninus as
the founder of Nineveh, although there is no historical basis for
this.
Ninevite 5 period :
The regional influence of Nineveh became particularly pronounced
during the archaeological period known as Ninevite 5, or Ninevite
V (2900–2600 BC). This period is defined primarily by the
characteristic pottery that is found widely throughout northern
Mesopotamia. Also, for the northern Mesopotamian region, the Early
Jezirah chronology has been developed by archaeologists. According
to this regional chronology, 'Ninevite 5' is equivalent to the Early
Jezirah I–II period.
Ninevite
5 was preceded by the Late Uruk period. Ninevite 5 pottery is roughly
contemporary to the Early Transcaucasian culture ware, and the Jemdet
Nasr period ware. Iraqi Scarlet Ware culture also belongs to this
period; this colourful painted pottery is somewhat similar to Jemdet
Nasr ware. Scarlet Ware was first documented in the Diyala River
basin in Iraq. Later, it was also found in the nearby Hamrin Basin,
and in Luristan.
Old
Assyrian period :
The historic Nineveh is mentioned in the Old Assyrian Empire during
the reign of Shamshi-Adad I (1809-1775) in about 1800 BC as a centre
of worship of Ishtar, whose cult was responsible for the city's
early importance.
Mitanni
period :
![](640px-Artist%92s_impression_of_a_hall_in_an_Assyrian_palace_from_The_Monuments_of_Nineveh_by_Sir_Austen_Henry_Layard,_1853.jpg)
Artist's
impression of a hall in an Assyrian palace from The Monuments of
Nineveh by Sir Austen Henry Layard, 1853
The goddess's statue was sent to Pharaoh Amenhotep III of Egypt
in the 14th century BC, by orders of the king of Mitanni. The Assyrian
city of Nineveh became one of Mitanni's vassals for half a century
until the early 14th century BC.
Middle
Assyrian period :
The Assyrian king Ashur-uballit I reclaimed it in 1365 BC while
overthrowing the Mitanni Empire and creating the Middle Assyrian
Empire (1365–1050 BC).
There
is a large body of evidence to show that Assyrian monarchs built
extensively in Nineveh during the late 3rd and 2nd millenniums BC;
it appears to have been originally an "Assyrian provincial
town". Later monarchs whose inscriptions have appeared on the
high city include the Middle Assyrian Empire kings Shalmaneser I
(1274–1245 BC) and Tiglath-Pileser I (1114–1076 BC),
both of whom were active builders in Assur (Ashur).
Imperial
Nineveh :
Neo-Assyrians :
During the Neo-Assyrian Empire, particularly from the time of Ashurnasirpal
II (ruled 883–859 BC) onward, there was considerable architectural
expansion. Successive monarchs such as Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon
II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal maintained and founded
new palaces, as well as temples to Sîn, Ashur, Nergal, Shamash,
Ninurta, Ishtar, Tammuz, Nisroch and Nabiu.
![](614px-Relief_from_Nineveh_Vorderasiatisches_Museum_Berlin.jpg)
Refined
low-relief section of a bull-hunt frieze from Nineveh, alabaster,
c. 695 BC (Pergamon Museum), Berlin
![](640px-Nineveh_north_palace_king_hunting_lion.jpg)
Relief
of Ashurbanipal hunting a Mesopotamian lion, from the Northern Palace
in Nineveh, as seen at the British Museum
Sennacherib's development of Nineveh :
It was Sennacherib who made Nineveh a truly magnificent city (c.
700 BC). He laid out new streets and squares and built within it
the South West Palace, or "palace without a rival", the
plan of which has been mostly recovered and has overall dimensions
of about 503 by 242 metres (1,650 ft × 794 ft). It comprised
at least 80 rooms, many of which were lined with sculpture. A large
number of cuneiform tablets were found in the palace. The solid
foundation was made out of limestone blocks and mud bricks; it was
22 metres (72 ft) tall. In total, the foundation is made of roughly
2,680,000 cubic metres (3,505,308 cu yd) of brick (approximately
160 million bricks). The walls on top, made out of mud brick, were
an additional 20 metres (66 ft) tall.
Some
of the principal doorways were flanked by colossal stone lamassu
door figures weighing up to 30,000 kilograms (30 t); these were
winged Mesopotamian lions or bulls, with human heads. These were
transported 50 kilometres (31 mi) from quarries at Balatai, and
they had to be lifted up 20 metres (66 ft) once they arrived at
the site, presumably by a ramp. There are also 3,000 metres (9,843
ft) of stone Assyrian palace reliefs, that include pictorial records
documenting every construction step including carving the statues
and transporting them on a barge. One picture shows 44 men towing
a colossal statue. The carving shows three men directing the operation
while standing on the Colossus. Once the statues arrived at their
destination, the final carving was done. Most of the statues weigh
between 9,000 and 27,000 kilograms (19,842 and 59,525 lb).
The
stone carvings in the walls include many battle scenes, impalings
and scenes showing Sennacherib's men parading the spoils of war
before him. The inscriptions boasted of his conquests: he wrote
of Babylon: "Its inhabitants, young and old, I did not spare,
and with their corpses I filled the streets of the city." A
full and characteristic set shows the campaign leading up to the
siege of Lachish in 701; it is the "finest" from the reign
of Sennacherib, and now in the British Museum. He later wrote about
a battle in Lachish: "And Hezekiah of Judah who had not submitted
to my yoke...him I shut up in Jerusalem his royal city like a caged
bird. Earthworks I threw up against him, and anyone coming out of
his city gate I made pay for his crime. His cities which I had plundered
I had cut off from his land."
At
this time, the total area of Nineveh comprised about 7 square kilometres
(1,730 acres), and fifteen great gates penetrated its walls. 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 kilometres (40 mi) distant. The enclosed area had more than 100,000
inhabitants (maybe closer to 150,000), about twice as many as Babylon
at the time, placing it among the largest settlements worldwide.
Some
scholars such as Stephanie Dalley at Oxford believe that the garden
which Sennacherib built next to his palace, with its associated
irrigation works, were the original Hanging Gardens of Babylon;
Dalley's argument is based on a disputation of the traditional placement
of the Hanging Gardens attributed to Berossus together with a combination
of literary and archaeological evidence.
After
Ashurbanipal :
![](640px-2018_Ashurbanipal_-_Nineveh.jpg)
The
walls of Nineveh at the time of Ashurbanipal. 645 - 640 BC. British
Museum BM 124938
The greatness of Nineveh was short-lived. In around 627 BC, after
the death of its last great king Ashurbanipal, the Neo-Assyrian
empire began to unravel through a series of bitter civil wars between
rival claimants for the throne, and in 616 BC Assyria was attacked
by its own former vassals, the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians,
Scythians and Cimmerians. In about 616 BC Kalhu was sacked, the
allied forces eventually reached Nineveh, besieging and sacking
the city in 612 BC, following bitter house-to-house fighting, after
which it was razed. Most of the people in the city who could not
escape to the last Assyrian strongholds in the north and west were
either massacred or deported out of the city and into the countryside
where they founded new settlements. Many unburied skeletons were
found by the archaeologists at the site. The Assyrian empire then
came to an end by 605 BC, the Medes and Babylonians dividing its
colonies between themselves.
It
is not clear whether Nineveh came under the rule of the Medes or
the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 612. The Babylonian Chronicle Concerning
the Fall of Nineveh records that Nineveh was "turned into mounds
and heaps", but this is literary hyperbole. The complete destruction
of Nineveh has traditionally been seen as confirmed by the Hebrew
Book of Ezekiel and the Greek Retreat of the Ten Thousand of Xenophon
(d. 354 BC). To the Greek historians Ctesias and Herodotus (c. 400
BC), Nineveh was a thing of the past; and when Xenophon passed the
place in the 4th century BC he described it as abandoned. There
are no later cuneiform tablets in Akkadian from Nineveh. Although
devastated in 612, the city was never completely abandoned.
Later
history :
The earliest piece of written evidence for the persistence of Nineveh
as a settlement is possibly the Cyrus Cylinder of 539/538 BC, but
the reading of this is disputed. If correctly read as Nineveh, it
indicates that Cyrus the Great restored the temple of Ishtar at
Nineveh and probably encouraged resettlement. A number of cuneiform
Elamite tablets have been found at Nineveh. They probably date from
the time of the revival of Elam in the century following the collapse
of Assyria. The Hebrew Book of Jonah, Stephanie Dalley asserts was
written in the 4th century BC, is an account of the city's repentance
and God's mercy which prevented destruction.
Archaeologically,
there is evidence of repairs at the temple of Nabu after 612 and
for the continued use of Sennacherib's palace. There is evidence
of syncretic Hellenistic cults. A statue of Hermes has been found
and a Greek inscription attached to a shrine of the Sebitti. A statue
of Herakles Epitrapezios dated to the 2nd century AD has also been
found. The library of Ashurbanipal may still have been in use until
around the time of Alexander the Great.
The
city was actively resettled under the Seleucid Empire. There is
evidence of more changes in Sennacherib's palace under the Parthian
Empire. The Parthians also established a municipal mint at Nineveh
coining in bronze. According to Tacitus, in AD 50 Meherdates, a
claimant to the Parthian throne with Roman support, took Nineveh.
By
Late Antiquity, Nineveh was restricted to the east bank of the Tigris
and the west bank was uninhabited. Under the Sasanian Empire, Nineveh
was not an administrative centre. By the 2nd century AD there were
Christians present and by 554 it was a bishopric of the Church of
the East. King Khosrow II (591–628) built a fortress on the
west bank, and two Christian monasteries were constructed around
570 and 595. This growing settlement was not called Mosul until
after the Arab conquests. It may have been called Hesna Ebraye (Jews'
Fort).
In
627, the city was the site of the Battle of Nineveh between the
Eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanians. In 641, it was conquered
by the Arabs, who built a mosque on the west bank and turned it
into an administrative centre. Under the Umayyad dynasty, it eclipsed
Nineveh, which was reduced to a Christian suburb with limited new
construction. By the 13th century, Nineveh was mostly ruins. A church
was converted into a Muslim shrine to the prophet Jonah, which continued
to attract pilgrims until its destruction by ISIL in 2014.
Biblical
Nineveh :
In the Hebrew Bible, Nineveh is first mentioned in Genesis 10:11:
"Ashur left that land, and built Nineveh". Some modern
English translations interpret "Ashur" in the Hebrew of
this verse as the country "Assyria" rather than a person,
thus making Nimrod, rather than Ashur, the founder of Nineveh. Sir
Walter Raleigh's notion that Nimrod built Nineveh, and the cities
in Genesis 10:11–12, has also been refuted by scholars. The
discovery of the fifteen Jubilees texts found amongst the Dead Sea
Scrolls, has since shown that, according to the Jewish sects of
Qumran, Genesis 10:11 affirms the apportionment of Nineveh to Ashur.
The attribution of Nineveh to Ashur is also supported by the Greek
Septuagint, King James Bible, Geneva Bible, and by Historian Flavius
Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews (Antiquities, i, vi, 4).
[non-primary source needed]
![](477px-Rembrandt_Harmenszoon_van_Rijn_-_The_Prophet_Jonah_before_the_Walls_of_Nineveh,_c._1655_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
The
Prophet Jonah before the Walls of Nineveh, drawing by Rembrandt,
c. 1655
Nineveh was the flourishing capital of the Assyrian Empire and was
the home of King Sennacherib, King of Assyria, during the Biblical
reign of King Hezekiah and the lifetime of Judean prophet Isaiah.
As recorded in Hebrew scripture, Nineveh was also the place where
Sennacherib died at the hands of his two sons, who then fled to
the vassal land of `rrt Urartu. The book of the prophet Nahum is
almost exclusively taken up with prophetic denunciations against
Nineveh. Its ruin and utter desolation are foretold. Its end was
strange, sudden, and tragic. According to the Bible, it was God's
doing, His judgment on Assyria's pride (Isaiah 10:5–19). In
fulfillment of prophecy, God made "an utter end of the place".
It became a "desolation". The prophet Zephaniah also predicts
its destruction along with the fall of the empire of which it was
the capital. Nineveh is also the setting of the Book of Tobit.
The
Book of Jonah, set in the days of the Assyrian empire, describes
it as an "exceedingly great city of three days' journey in
breadth", whose population at that time is given as "more
than 120,000". Genesis 10:11-12 lists four cities "Nineveh,
Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen", ambiguously stating that either
Resen or Calah is "the great city." The ruins of Kuyunjiq,
Nimrud, Karamles and Khorsabad form the four corners of an irregular
quadrangle. The ruins of the "great city" Nineveh, with
the whole area included within the parallelogram they form by lines
drawn from the one to the other, are generally regarded as consisting
of these four sites. The description of Nineveh in Jonah likely
was a reference to greater Nineveh, including the surrounding cities
of Rehoboth, Calah and Resen The Book of Jonah depicts Nineveh as
a wicked city worthy of destruction. God sent Jonah to preach to
the Ninevites of their coming destruction, and they fasted and repented
because of this. As a result, God spared the city; when Jonah protests
against this, God states He is showing mercy for the population
who are ignorant of the difference between right and wrong ("who
cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand")
and mercy for the animals in the city.
Nineveh's
repentance and salvation from evil can be found in the Hebrew Tanakh,
aka the Old Testament, and referred to in the Christian Bible and
Muslim Quran. To this day, Syriac and Oriental Orthodox churches
commemorate the three days Jonah spent inside the fish during the
Fast of Nineveh. The Christians observing this holiday fast by refraining
from food and drink. Churches encourage followers to refrain from
meat, fish and dairy products.
Archaeology
:
The location of Nineveh was known, to some, continuously through
the Middle Ages. Benjamin of Tudela visited it in 1170; Petachiah
of Regensburg soon after.
Carsten
Niebuhr recorded its location during the 1761–67 Danish expedition.
Niebuhr wrote afterwards that "I did not learn that I was at
so remarkable a spot, till near the river. Then they showed me a
village on a great hill, which they call Nunia, and a mosque, in
which the prophet Jonah was buried. Another hill in this district
is called Kalla Nunia, or the Castle of Nineveh. On that lies a
village Koindsjug."
Excavation
history :
In 1842, the French Consul General at Mosul, Paul-Émile Botta,
began to search the vast mounds that lay along the opposite bank
of the river. 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.
![](392px-Nineve.jpg)
Bronze
lion from Nineveh
In 1847 the young British diplomat Austen Henry Layard explored
the ruins. Layard did not use modern archaeological methods; his
stated goal was "to obtain the largest possible number of well
preserved objects of art at the least possible outlay of time and
money." In the Kuyunjiq mound, Layard rediscovered in 1849
the lost palace of Sennacherib with its 71 rooms and colossal bas-reliefs.
He also unearthed the palace and famous library of Ashurbanipal
with 22,000 cuneiform clay tablets. Most of Layard's material was
sent to the British Museum, but others were dispersed elsewhere
as two large pieces which were given to Lady Charlotte Guest and
eventually found their way to the Metropolitan Museum. The study
of the archaeology of Nineveh reveals the wealth and glory of ancient
Assyria under kings such as Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) and Ashurbanipal
(669–626 BC).
The
work of exploration was carried on by Hormuzd Rassam (a modern Assyrian),
George Smith and others, and a vast treasury of specimens of Assyria
was incrementally exhumed for European museums. Palace after palace
was discovered, with their decorations and their sculptured slabs,
revealing the life and manners of this ancient people, their arts
of war and peace, the forms of their religion, the style of their
architecture, and the magnificence of their monarchs.
The
mound of Kuyunjiq was excavated again by the archaeologists of the
British Museum, led by Leonard William King, at the beginning of
the 20th century. Their efforts concentrated on the site of the
Temple of Nabu, the god of writing, where another cuneiform library
was supposed to exist. However, no such library was ever found:
most likely, it had been destroyed by the activities of later residents.
The
excavations started again in 1927, under the direction of Campbell
Thompson, who had taken part in King's expeditions. Some works were
carried out outside Kuyunjiq, for instance on the mound of Tell
Nebi Yunus, which was the ancient arsenal of Nineveh, or along the
outside walls. Here, near the northwestern corner of the walls,
beyond the pavement of a later building, the archaeologists found
almost 300 fragments of prisms recording the royal annals of Sennacherib,
Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal, beside a prism of Esarhaddon which
was almost perfect.
After
the Second World War, several excavations were carried out by Iraqi
archaeologists. From 1951 to 1958 Mohammed Ali Mustafa worked the
site. The work was continued from 1967 through 1971 by Tariq Madhloom.
Some additional excavation occurred by Manhal Jabur from the early
1970s to 1987. For the most part, these digs focused on Tell Nebi
Yunus.
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. The
excavation reports are in progress.
Most
recently, an Iraqi-Italian Archaeological Expedition by the Alma
Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna and the Iraqi SBAH, led
by prof. Nicolò Marchetti, begun in September-November 2019
(with a second campaign having taken place in the Fall of 2020)
a long-term project aiming at the excavation, conservation and public
presentation of Eastern Nineveh (NINEV_E project). Work was carried
out in nine excavation areas, from the Adad Gate - now completely
repaired after removing hundreds of tons of debris from ISIL's destructions,
explored and protected with a new roof - deep into the Nebi Yunus
town. In three areas a very thick later stratigraphy was encountered,
but the late 7th century BC stratum was reached everywhere (actually
in one area in the pre-Sennacherib lower town the excavations already
exposed an 11th-century BC stratum, aiming in the future at exploring
the first settlement therein). The site is greatly endangered with
dumping of debris, illegal settlements and quarrying as the main
threats.
Archaeological
remains :
![](640px-Humvee_down_after_isis_attack.jpg)
Humvee
down after ISIS attack
Today, Nineveh's location is marked by two large mounds, Tell Kuyunjiq
and Tell Nabi Yunus "Prophet Jonah", and the remains of
the city walls (about 12 kilometres (7 mi) in circumference). The
Neo-Assyrian levels of Kuyunjiq have been extensively explored.
The other mound, Nabi Yunus, has not been as extensively explored
because there was an Arab Muslim shrine dedicated to that prophet
on the site. On July 24, 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant destroyed the shrine as part of a campaign to destroy religious
sanctuaries it deemed "un-Islamic."
The
ruin mound of Kuyunjiq rises about 20 metres (66 ft) above the surrounding
plain of the ancient city. It is quite broad, measuring about 800
by 500 metres (2,625 ft × 1,640 ft). Its upper layers have
been extensively excavated, and several Neo-Assyrian palaces and
temples have been found there. A deep sounding by Max Mallowan revealed
evidence of habitation as early as the 6th millennium BC. Today,
there is little evidence of these old excavations other than weathered
pits and earth piles. In 1990, the only Assyrian remains visible
were those of the entry court and the first few chambers of the
Palace of Sennacherib. Since that time, the palace chambers have
received significant damage by looters. Portions of relief sculptures
that were in the palace chambers in 1990 were seen on the antiquities
market by 1996. Photographs of the chambers made in 2003 show that
many of the fine relief sculptures there have been reduced to piles
of rubble.
![](640px-Nineveh_Nebi_Yunus_Excavation_Bull-Man_Head.jpg)
Winged
Bull excavated at Tell Nebi Yunus by Iraqi archaeologists
Tell Nebi Yunus is located about 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) south of Kuyunjiq
and is the secondary ruin mound at Nineveh. On the basis of texts
of Sennacherib, the site has traditionally been identified as the
"armory" of Nineveh, and a gate and pavements excavated
by Iraqis in 1954 have been considered to be part of the "armory"
complex. Excavations in 1990 revealed a monumental entryway consisting
of a number of large inscribed orthostats and "bull-man"
sculptures, some apparently unfinished.
Following
the Mosul liberation, the tunnels under Tell Nebi Yunus were explored
in 2018, in which a 3000-year-old palace was discovered, including
a pair of reliefs, each showing a row of women, along with reliefs
of lamassu.
City
wall and gates :
![](418px-Nineveh_map_city_walls_&_gates.jpg)
Simplified
plan of ancient Nineveh showing city wall and location of gateways
The ruins of Nineveh are surrounded by the remains of a massive
stone and mudbrick wall dating from about 700 BC. About 12 km in
length, the wall system consisted of an ashlar stone retaining wall
about 6 metres (20 ft) high surmounted by a mudbrick wall about
10 metres (33 ft) high and 15 metres (49 ft) thick. The stone retaining
wall had projecting stone towers spaced about every 18 metres (59
ft). The stone wall and towers were topped by three-step merlons.
Five
of the gateways have been explored to some extent by archaeologists
:
•
Mashki
Gate :
Translated "Gate of the Water Carriers", (Mashki from
Persian root word Mashk, meaning waterskin), also Masqi Gate, it
was perhaps used to take livestock to water from the Tigris which
currently flows about 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) to the west. It has
been reconstructed in fortified mudbrick to the height of the top
of the vaulted passageway. The Assyrian original may have been plastered
and ornamented. It was bulldozed along with the Adad Gate during
ISIL occupation.
•
Nergal Gate :
Named for the god Nergal, it may have been used for some ceremonial
purpose, as it is the only known gate flanked by stone sculptures
of winged bull-men (lamassu). The reconstruction is conjectural,
as the gate was excavated by Layard in the mid-19th century and
reconstructed in the mid-20th century. The lamassu on this gate
were defaced with a jackhammer by ISIL forces.
•
Adad Gate :
![](640px-Nineveh_Adad_gate_exterior_entrance_far2.jpg)
Photograph
of the restored Adad Gate, taken prior to the gate's destruction
by ISIL in April 2016
Adad Gate was named for the god Adad. A reconstruction was begun
in the 1960s by Iraqis but was not completed. The result was a mixture
of concrete and eroding mudbrick, which nonetheless does give some
idea of the original structure. The excavator left some features
unexcavated, allowing a view of the original Assyrian construction.
The original brickwork of the outer vaulted passageway was well
exposed, as was the entrance of the vaulted stairway to the upper
levels. The actions of Nineveh's last defenders could be seen in
the hastily built mudbrick construction which narrowed the passageway
from 4 to 2 metres (13 to 7 ft). Around April 13, 2016, ISIL demolished
both the gate and the adjacent wall by flattening them with a bulldozer.
•
Shamash
Gate :
![](Nineveh_walls_east_Shamash_Gate_from_rampart.JPG)
Eastern
city wall and Shamash Gate
Named for the Sun god Shamash, it opens to the road to Erbil. It
was excavated by Layard in the 19th century. The stone retaining
wall and part of the mudbrick structure were reconstructed in the
1960s. The mudbrick reconstruction has deteriorated significantly.
The stone wall projects outward about 20 metres (66 ft) from the
line of main wall for a width of about 70 metres (230 ft). It is
the only gate with such a significant projection. The mound of its
remains towers above the surrounding terrain. Its size and design
suggest it was the most important gate in Neo-Assyrian times.
•
Hali
Gate :
Near the south end of the eastern city wall. Exploratory excavations
were undertaken here by the University of California, Berkeley expedition
of 1989–1990. There is an outward projection of the city wall,
though not as pronounced as at the Shamash Gate. The entry passage
had been narrowed with mudbrick to about 2 metres (7 ft) as at the
Adad Gate. Human remains from the final battle of Nineveh were found
in the passageway. Located in the eastern wall, it is the southernmost
and largest of all the remaining gates of ancient Nineveh.
Threats
to the site :
Already in 2003, the site of Nineveh was exposed to decay of its
reliefs by a lack of proper protective roofing, vandalism and looting
holes dug into chamber floors. Future preservation is further compromised
by the site's proximity to expanding suburbs.
The
ailing Mosul Dam is a persistent threat to Nineveh as well as the
city of Mosul. This is in no small part due to years of disrepair
(in 2006, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cited it as the most
dangerous dam in the world), the cancellation of a second dam project
in the 1980s to act as flood relief in case of failure, and occupation
by ISIL in 2014 resulting in fleeing workers and stolen equipment.
If the dam fails, the entire site could be under as much as 45 feet
(14 m) of water.
In
an October 2010 report titled Saving Our Vanishing Heritage, Global
Heritage Fund named Nineveh one of 12 sites most "on the verge"
of irreparable destruction and loss, citing insufficient management,
development pressures and looting as primary causes.
By
far, the greatest threat to Nineveh has been purposeful human actions
by ISIL, which first occupied the area in the mid-2010s. In early
2015, they announced their intention to destroy the walls of Nineveh
if the Iraqis tried to liberate the city. They also threatened to
destroy artifacts. [citation needed] On February 26 they destroyed
several items and statues in the Mosul Museum and are believed to
have plundered others to sell overseas. The items were mostly from
the Assyrian exhibit, which ISIL declared blasphemous and idolatrous.
There were 300 items in the museum out of a total of 1,900, with
the other 1,600 being taken to the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad
for security reasons prior to the 2014 Fall of Mosul. [according
to whom?] Some of the artifacts sold and/or destroyed were from
Nineveh. Just a few days after the destruction of the museum pieces,
they demolished remains at major UNESCO world heritage sites Khorsabad,
Nimrud, and Hatra.
Rogation
of the Ninevites (Nineveh's Wish) :
Assyrians of the Ancient Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church,
Syriac Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Assyrian Church
of the East and Saint Thomas Christians of the Syro-Malabar Catholic
Church observe a fast called Ba'uta d-Ninwe which means Nineveh's
Prayer. Copts and Ethiopian Orthodox also maintain this fast.
Popular
culture :
The English Romantic poet Edwin Atherstone wrote an epic The Fall
of Nineveh. The work tells of an uprising against its king Sardanapalus
of all the nations that were dominated by the Assyrian empire. He
is a great criminal. He has had one hundred prisoners of war executed.
After a long struggle the town is conquered by Median and Babylonian
troops led by prince Arbaces and priest Belesis. The king sets his
own palace on fire and dies inside together with all his concubines.
![](640px-Fall_of_nineveh.jpg)
John
Martin, The Fall of Nineveh
Atherstone's friend, the artist John Martin, created a painting
of the same name inspired by the poem. The English poet John Masefield's
well-known, fanciful 1903 poem Cargoes mentions Nineveh in its first
line. Nineveh is also mentioned in Rudyard Kipling's 1897 poem Recessional
and in Arthur O'Shaughnessy's 1873 poem Ode.
The
1962 Italian peplum movie, War Gods of Babylon, is based on the
sacking and fall of Nineveh by the combined rebel armies led by
the Babylonians.
In
the 1973 film The Exorcist Father Lankester Merrin was on an archeological
dig near Nineveh prior to returning to the United States and leading
the exorcism of Reagan MacNiel.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Nineveh