However, in 6 12 BC, after the Assyrian empire was captured by the Medes of the new kingdom of Babylon, it withdrew from the historical stage forever. Due to the constant war in this area, all relevant materials and buildings were destroyed, the history of Assyria was gradually forgotten, and Nineveh soon disappeared from people's memory. Later generations can only find the names of Assyria and Nineveh from legends and ancient books, and guess the luxurious architecture of Nineveh in imagination until 600 years.
/kloc-In the mid-9th century, after rawlinson, an Englishman, successfully deciphered cuneiform, westerners became strongly interested in the burning of ancient Mesopotamia, and people began to study and look for Assyria and Nineveh repeatedly mentioned in the Bible. The first French consul engaged in this activity was Paul Imeyer Berta. Starting from 1842, he dug mounds and hillsides in Mosuo and Ku Jantyik successively, but found nothing. Then he came to a place called Kaho Chabad, where he finally unearthed sculpture relics such as cow heads, palace guards, plaster portraits of kings and gods, and other antiquities such as mud bricks, wallboard and pottery pieces. Berta announced to the world that he had discovered Nineveh and shipped these cultural relics back to France, which immediately caused a sensation in the museum.
Not to be outdone, the British set up an archaeological excavation team led by the explorer Austin Henry Leyard in 1845, and went to Mosuo, Iraq for excavation. After Layard came to Mosuo, he immediately began to dig, and soon dug up ivory carvings, cuneiform characters and sculpture drawing boards, showing his deep understanding of Assyrian culture. Later, statues of flying lions, flying cows and faces were unearthed one after another. Excited, Layard quickly shipped these treasures back to England and exhibited them in the London Museum, which set off a new Assyrian craze.
Nineveh relief
However, according to scholars' research, the sites excavated by Bertha and Layard are not Nineveh sites, but just ordinary cities in ancient Assyria. Therefore, archaeologists and explorers continue to search for the lost ancient capital of Assyria. 1847, Layard began to excavate Ku Jantyik. When he dug 20 feet underground, he suddenly found many antiques, including bronze products, murals, ivory carved heads, stone lions with arteries and so on. Layard continued to dig, expanding the scope of excavation, and gradually dug up some palace relics. At this time, rawlinson, who successfully deciphered cuneiform, confirmed that this was the real site of Nineveh. After more than two thousand years of annihilation, the once prosperous capital Nineveh finally reappeared in front of the world.
Since then, the British archaeological team has come to this area for excavation many times and shipped a large number of treasures back to Britain. It was not until the 20th century that scholars began to conduct in-depth academic research on Nineveh and other Assyrian monuments. According to scholars' argument, Nineveh was identified as the capital of Assyrian Empire when Senna Sherib was in power in the 8th century BC. Since then, temples and palaces have been built on a large scale, making Nineveh the most prosperous city in the world.
Nineveh is surrounded by a wall with a perimeter of 12km. The city wall is 45m wide in some places, and Shicheng has 15 gates, which are very large. There are luxurious palaces and temples in the city. In order to build this palace, Senna Sherib brought in a large number of skilled craftsmen from Turkey, Persia and Babylon. These craftsmen brought rare materials such as fragrant wood, ivory, gold and silver, limestone and so on, and built the palace magnificently. There are two bulls with wings in front of the palace as guards, and the lobby of the palace is decorated with marble relief. The palace is also equipped with water supply facilities and heating facilities, including pulleys and buckets.