Nineveh

Nineveh stood on the eastern bank of the Tigris river opposite modern Mosul in Iraq and became the last and greatest capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire under King Sennacherib, who enlarged it dramatically in the early seventh century BC with new walls, gates and the Southwest Palace. Its fortifications enclosed one of the largest urban areas in the ancient Near East, protected by a double wall system with monumental gateways guarded by carved stone lamassu figures, and the site also held the palace and library of King Ashurbanipal, whose cuneiform tablet collection is among the most important sources for Mesopotamian literature. The city fell to a coalition of Babylonians and Medes in 612 BC, and its ruined mounds, chiefly Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunus, have suffered significant damage from conflict in the region in the twenty-first century.