Nineveh
The Assyrian capital where Ashurbanipal's library preserved the Epic of Gilgamesh and many other tablets that this site quotes.
- Location
- East bank of the Tigris, opposite Mosul
- Modern country
- Iraq
- Type
- Assyrian royal capital
- Key rulers
- Sennacherib (705–681 BCE); Ashurbanipal (668–c. 627 BCE)
- Excavated by
- Austen Henry Layard, Hormuzd Rassam, later Max Mallowan
- Fall
- Sacked by Babylonians and Medes, 612 BCE
What is Nineveh known for?
Nineveh was the oldest and most populous city of the Assyrian empire, on the east bank of the Tigris opposite modern Mosul. Sennacherib made it his capital around 700 BCE and built a vast palace. His grandson Ashurbanipal gathered a great library of cuneiform tablets there.
The city fell in 612 BCE to a coalition of Babylonians and Medes. In the 19th century, excavations by Austen Henry Layard and Hormuzd Rassam recovered thousands of tablets from Ashurbanipal's collections, now mostly in the British Museum. Among them were the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, including the flood story of Tablet XI that George Smith announced in 1872.
In the Bible, Genesis names Nimrod as Nineveh's builder, and the Book of Jonah sends the prophet there. Much of what this site quotes from Mesopotamian myth, including Adapa fragments and the flood narratives, survives because it was copied for Nineveh's library.
Ashurbanipal's library here preserved Gilgamesh and other myths; Genesis credits Nimrod with building the city.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeAdapa
- Rabbit holeEnuma Elish
- Rabbit holeNimrod
- PersonAmmi-saduqa
- PersonAshurbanipal
- PersonGeorge Smith
- PersonR. Campbell Thompson
- PersonSennacherib
- PersonTobit and Tobias
- PlaceBritish Museum
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Nineveh'Reference
- Genesis 10:8–12 (KJV), Bible GatewayPrimary text
- Wikipedia, 'Nineveh'Reference
Pictures on profile pages are drawn placeholders, not likenesses. Public-domain portraits and photographs will replace them.