Nimrud

Nimrud, the ancient Assyrian city of Kalhu, called Calah in the Bible, lies in Iraq's Nineveh Plains, about 30 kilometers south of Mosul and near the Tigris' confluence with the Great Zab. Occupied from about 1350 to 610 BC, it served as the Neo-Assyrian Empire's imperial capital from 879 to 706 BC under kings such as Ashurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III, growing to roughly 360 hectares behind 7.5 kilometers of city walls and, by around 800 BC, to an estimated population of 75,000, then the world's most populous city. Its ruins include royal palaces built to surpass earlier Assyrian architecture, temples, a ziggurat, and what is described as perhaps the first large zoo ever built. Islamic State militants occupied the site in 2014 and bulldozed roughly ninety percent of its excavated remains in 2015, before Iraqi forces retook the area in November 2016; UNESCO-backed reconstruction work began in 2017.