history of the ancient world is very exciting.Special highlight is the presence of white spots, which only interest is heated, causing a rapid flight of fancy.Among the first human civilizations noteworthy Assyria, located in Mesopotamia, in its northern part.Early Assyrian capital - a city of Ashur (or Assyrian), named after the supreme god Ashur.From his name received and the whole empire.
little background
In the second half of the third millennium BC in the Arabian Peninsula sharply worsened climate.It made its inhabitants (the Semitic tribes) to move to the road in search of a suitable place to live.Traveling to the north and east, they came to Mesopotamia, where settled their closest relatives - the Akkadians.
One by one, they founded villages, which then became part of the empire.The city became the main Nineveh, Ashur and Arbela, which until XV century.BC.They exist by themselves, separately from each other.
first capital of Assyria
is considered to be that of the city of Ashur, which became the center of a small state in charge of trade.It was ruled by merchants and important decisions of their community.It is they who first arrived in Asia Minor, where they founded several colonies.The ruler of the city (ishshiakkum) had full power, and his title was inherited.Its area of influence was a religion, that is, he was the high priest and the chief of the army, and even played the role of head of the Council.Much later the Council included people as close to ishshiakkumu, which turned into a real monarch.
The XXIII on.BC.Region (capital of Assyria as well) came under the rule of the kingdom of Akkad, and after his conquest of the people Kuti gained independence.Today we can see the ruins of this once great city 260 km from Baghdad.
Other communities
- Dur-Sharrukin. Though the city - not the first capital of Assyria, he played an important role in public life.Located three hours away from Nineveh, it was the second residence of the monarch.The settlement was founded in Sargon II in 711 BCDur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad today) was surrounded by massive walls, and within an extensive palace, two hundred rooms.Discovered rich sculptural decoration currently stored at the Louvre (Paris).
- Ruins Nimrud (Kalha) are today in Iraq near the city of Mosul.The settlement is based Shalmaneser I in the XIII century BC, and after four years of Ashur-natsir-APAL II made it his capital.Much later, the town destroyed the army of the Medes and Chaldeans.There stood a magnificent palace, surrounded by walls and buildings.During the excavations were found statues of fantasy creatures, numerous reliefs, carvings, clay plates with cuneiform writing.Unfortunately, during the Iraqi war, the ancient city was badly damaged.
Terrible Nineveh
This is another capital of Assyria.The city was called "den of the lions", the "city of blood."It is located near modern Mosul was the (Iraq) on the left bank of the Tigris - the hills Kuyunjik.Its name is familiar to all from the Bible.As historians say, Nineveh was founded around the middle of the fifth millennium BCThe main town it did Sennahirib and his son Ashurbanipal.
During its heyday, Nineveh stretches along four kilometers of the river and the main street has a width of 26 meters.The capital of Assyria, featuring clear and rigorous planning, which violate strictly prohibited.
But powerful settlement was also subdued.The capital of Assyria - Nineveh - destroyed by the Babylonians with the Medes.The excavated ruins, archaeologists discovered the remains of the royal Kuyundzhikskoy famous library, which houses the approximately thirty thousand clay tablets.Also found polychrome pottery, bronze sculptures, numerous reliefs and statues Gatekeeper - winged bulls and lions.
Appearance city
capital of Assyria in ancient times was a small settlement.But in biblical times, when God sent Jonah to Nineveh, she was unprecedentedly huge.Its founder is considered to be the son of King Sargon Sinaherib.He made the city and its capital, and equip it in a big way.
capital of Assyria - "den of lions" - was surrounded by a massive wall of a length of twelve kilometers.It was located fifteen gates.Water is supplied to the city through the channel width of 20 meters and a length of over 50 km, which was then the tunnel, then the aqueduct.The governor was generous with the builders of the channel, as evidenced by the inscriptions found.
capital of Assyria - Nineveh city - inhabited by 170,000 people!Its circumference reached 150 km.Inside the settlement were not only the king's palaces and temples, and pastures, gardens.Imperial Street, flooded asphalt, was decorated with elaborate statues and had a greater width than the Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg today.
fall of the great city
But the capital of Assyria was doomed.The city was called "den of the lions", the "city of blood," and its inhabitants - the proud and cruel people.The Bible foretold Nineveh's destruction, the transformation of the desert.But the first siege of the Medes in the reign of Ashurbanipal she survived.The end of the power of the Assyrian Empire was when subjugated peoples vehemently sought to throw off the yoke.
in 614 separated Babylon joined forces with the Medes and besieged the city.Its inhabitants have given a fitting rebuff, but the forces were unequal.In addition, the attackers went to the trick: they destroyed the dam, giving Tiger the ability to get out of its banks and wash away part of the walls.The invaders pillaged the once great capital city and razed it to the ground.Only in the mid-nineteenth century Nineveh has returned from oblivion thanks to the efforts of the archaeologist Henry Layard Aston.
trace in the history of
Although the capital of ancient Assyria fell, marking the death of the whole empire, yet it does not get lost in the maze of history.Mention of its people now and then appear in the pages later chronicles, that is a rare exception for science.
Assyrians were not destroyed, not assimilated, and retired to the inaccessible mountains of Kurdistan, where they continued to follow the traditions of their ancestors.Inscriptions times of Darius I suggest that during the construction of the palace was used cedar, brought by the Assyrians from Lebanon.Arab authors of the Middle Ages claimed that the ancient people to continue living in their own land.But the bishopric of the Armenian Church in Mosul and is now called the Assyrian.In the first month of the year is celebrating the Day of Nineveh with unprecedented triumph and scope.Also, the descendants of the Assyrians Take special post, just as they have done their ancestors.And wear conical hats made of felt, a hair's breadth such as those depicted in the ancient bas-reliefs.And these hats were not common anywhere else in the East.
Instead of conclusion
Bible tells about the bad city, which, like Babylon, sunk in sin and pride.That's why he was killed just as predicted.But historians and archaeologists reveal an entirely different - a surprisingly large settlement at that time was to arrange for carefully thought-out plan.His wealth could not attract other states, which only gained strength and needed the money.That is why replacing the Assyrian Empire came to other cities that are largely inferior not only to Nineveh, but Nimrud and Ashur.
