Nineveh Pages 2232–2233
4418—NINEVEH, the famous capital of the Assyrian Empire in its later years, was located 280 miles north of Babylon on the eastern bank of the Tigris. It is now part of the modern city of Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq. It was called a “bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage” by Nahum (Nahum 3:1) because it overran and robbed other countries to enrich itself. It had a colorful yet tragic history, especially from the ninth century B.C. to the time of its final destruction in 612 B.C. by a coalition of forces led by the Medes and the Babylonians (cf. Zephaniah 2:13).
Henry Layard visited the ruined Nineveh in 1845 and found the entire circuit of its walled area to be seven and three-quarters miles. Within the eighteen-hundred-acre enclosure were two mounds. The southern mound was 100 feet high, covered forty acres, and was known by the natives as “Nebi Yunis” (the Prophet Jonah). The north mound was 90 feet high, covered one hundred acres, and was called “Kuyunjik” (The Castle of Nineveh). Only the latter mound could be excavated since the former one is a holy site in Islam.
Layard cut trenches in the north mound and soon brought to light a gateway flanked by two winged lions and a wall on which Sennacherib’s name was inscribed in cuneiform characters. Penetrating farther into the city, Layard uncovered Sennacherib’s royal palace, whose approach was lined with gigantic winged bulls. These bore on their bodies the cuneiform inscribed annals of the king. Immense halls 40 feet wide and 180 feet long led to the interior of the palace, of which Layard said:
In this magnificent edifice I opened no less than seventy-one halls, chambers, and passages, whose walls, almost without exception, had been panelled with slabs of sculptured alabaster recording the wars, the triumphs, and the great deeds of the Assyrian king. By a rough calculation, about 9880 feet, or nearly two miles, of bas-reliefs, with twenty-seven portals, formed by colossal winged bulls and lion-sphinxes, were uncovered in that part alone of the buildings explored during my researches.
The annals of Sennacherib inscribed on the manheaded winged bulls and on terra cotta and a baked clay cylinder give a full account of Sennacherib’s eight campaigns, including the capture and destruction of Babylon in 689 B.C. and his campaign down the east coast of the Mediterranean toward Egypt in 701 B.C. The siege and capture of Lachish during this king’s campaign in Judah is graphically pictured on one of these palace walls. Beneath this pictured panel are words (see The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, ed. J. B. Pritchard, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958, p. 200) describing the Assyrian account of his campaign in Palestine (cf. 2 Kings 18:13–19:37; Isaiah 36–37).
As to Hezekiah, the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke, I laid siege to 46 of his strong cities, walled forts and to the countless small villages in their vicinity, and conquered (them) by means of well-stamped (earth-) ramps, and battering-rams brought (thus) near (to the walls) (combined with) the attack by foot soldiers, (using) mines, breeches as well as sapper work. I drove out (of them) 200,150 people, young and old, male and female, horses, mules, donkeys, camels, big and small cattle beyond counting, and considered (them) booty. Himself Hezekiah I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage … Thus I reduced his country, but I still increased the tribute and the katru-presents (due) to me (as his) overlord which I imposed (later) upon him beyond the former tribute, to be delivered annually …
Frank Charles Thompson and John Stephen Jauchen, eds., Thompson Chain Archaeological Supplement, The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible (Indianapolis, IN: B.B. Kirkbride Bible Co., Inc., 1997), 2232–2233.
4418—Sennacherib, king of Assyria, inscribed the details of his eight military campaigns, including his invasion of Israel, on this hexagonal clay prism which was found among the ruins of his palace at Nineveh. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.
Sennacherib’s large palace was complemented by an intricate system of canals and aqueducts to irrigate large palace gardens. He had a large processional way constructed from the Tigris riverbank, right through the center of the city, to his palace. An enormous wall with heavily fortified gates encircled Sennacherib’s capital. These massive fortifications, however, did not stop the Medes and Babylonians from capturing Nineveh in 612 B.C., when the raging river in full flood undermined a portion of the massive city walls.
Frank Charles Thompson and John Stephen Jauchen, eds., Thompson Chain Archaeological Supplement, The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible (Indianapolis, IN: B.B. Kirkbride Bible Co., Inc., 1997), 2233.
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