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88-765: The New Croton Aqueduct is an aqueduct in the New York City water supply system in Westchester County, New York carrying the water of the Croton Watershed . Built roughly parallel to the Old Croton Aqueduct which it originally augmented, the new aqueduct opened in 1890. The old aqueduct remained in service until 1955, when supply from the Delaware and Catskill Aqueducts was sufficient to allow taking it off line. Waters of

176-601: A filtration plant . The filtration system protects the public from disease-causing microorganisms such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium . The Croton Water Filtration Plant was activated in May 2015. Aqueduct (watercourse) An aqueduct is a watercourse constructed to carry water from a source to a distribution point far away. In modern engineering, the term aqueduct is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose. The term aqueduct also often refers specifically to

264-746: A Turkish name (Layard used the form kouyunjik , diminutive of koyun "sheep" in Turkish); known as Armousheeah by the Arabs, it is thought to have some connection with the Qara Qoyunlu dynasty. These toponyms refer to the areas to the North and South of the Khosr stream, respectively: Kuyunjiq is the name for the whole northern sector enclosed by the city walls and is dominated by the large (35 ha) mound of Tell Kuyunjiq, while Nabī (or more commonly Nebi) Yunus

352-564: A bridge carrying an artificial watercourse . Aqueducts were used in ancient Greece , the ancient Near East , ancient Rome , ancient Aztec , and ancient Inca . The simplest aqueducts are small ditches cut into the earth. Much larger channels may be used in modern aqueducts. Aqueducts sometimes run for some or all of their path through tunnels constructed underground. Modern aqueducts may also use pipelines. Historically, agricultural societies have constructed aqueducts to irrigate crops and supply large cities with drinking water. The word aqueduct

440-425: A centre of worship of Ishtar , whose cult was responsible for the city's early importance. The goddess's statue was sent to Pharaoh Amenhotep III of Egypt in the 14th century BC, by orders of the king of Mitanni . The Assyrian city of Nineveh became one of Mitanni's vassals for half a century until the early 14th century BC. The Assyrian king Ashur-uballit I reclaimed it in 1365 BC while overthrowing

528-625: A construction material widely used by the Nazca culture. The time period in which they were constructed is still debated, but some evidence supports circa A.D. 540–552, in response to drought periods in the region. The Guayabo National Monument of Costa Rica, a park covering the largest archaeological site in the country, contains a system of aqueducts. The complex network of uncovered and covered aqueducts still functions well. The aqueducts are constructed from rounded river stones, which are mostly made of volcanic rock . The civilization that constructed

616-605: A few kilometers to the northeast. Nineveh was a typical farming village in the Halaf Period . In 5000 BC, Nineveh transitioned from a Halaf village to an Ubaid village. During the Late Chalcolithic period Nineveh was part one of the few Ubaid villages in Upper Mesopotamia which became a proto-city. Others include Ugarit , Brak, Hamoukar, Arbela , Alep , and regionally Susa, Eridu, Nippur. During

704-545: A fragment remains in Mexico City today. Extensive usage of elaborate aqueducts have been found to have been used in ancient Sri Lanka . The best example is the Yoda Ela or Jaya Ganga, an 87 kilometres (54 mi) long water canal carrying excess water between two artificial reservoirs with a gradient of 10 to 20 cm per kilometer during the fifth century AD. However, the ancient engineering methods in calculating

792-566: A mosque, in which the prophet Jonah was buried. Another hill in this district is called Kalla Nunia, or the Castle of Nineveh. On that lies a village Koindsjug." In 1842, the French Consul General at Mosul, Paul-Émile Botta , began to search the vast mounds that lay along the opposite bank of the river. While at Tell Kuyunjiq he had little success, the locals whom he employed in these excavations, to their great surprise, came upon

880-443: A new aqueduct is built alongside the old one because it cannot be shut down during construction. Nineveh Nineveh ( / ˈ n ɪ n ɪ v ə / NIN -iv-ə ; Akkadian : 𒌷𒉌𒉡𒀀 , NI.NU.A , Ninua ; Biblical Hebrew : נִינְוֵה , Nīnəwē ; Arabic : نَيْنَوَىٰ , Naynawā ; Syriac : ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ , Nīnwē ), also known in early modern times as Kouyunjik , was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia , located in

968-437: A series of well-like vertical shafts, connected by gently sloping horizontal tunnels. There are three types of falaj: These enabled large scale agriculture to flourish in a dry land environment. In Persia , starting around 3000 years ago a system of underground aqueducts called qanāts were constructed, a series of well-like vertical shafts, connected by gently sloping tunnels. This technique: Throughout Petra , Jordan,

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1056-678: A similar trajectory out of the neolithic. Caves in the Zagros Mountains adjacent to the north side of the Nineveh Plains were used as PPNA settlements, most famously Shanidar Cave . Nineveh itself was founded as early as 6000 BC during the late Neolithic period. Deep sounding at Nineveh uncovered soil layers that have been dated to early in the era of the Hassuna archaeological culture . The development and culture of Nineveh paralleled Tepe Gawra and Tell Arpachiyah

1144-515: A source such as a river, spring, reservoir, qanat , or aqueduct for domestic consumption or agricultural irrigation of crop land uses. Rills were traditionally used in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean climate cultures of ancient and historical eras; and other climates and continents worldwide. They are distinguished from a 'water ditch ' by being lined to reduce absorption losses and to increase durability. The Falaj irrigation system at

1232-642: A third is from the Colorado River. In modern civil engineering projects, detailed study and analysis of open-channel flow is commonly required to support flood control, irrigation systems, and large water supply systems when an aqueduct rather than a pipeline is the preferred solution. In the past, aqueducts often had channels made of earth or other porous materials but significant amounts of water are lost through such unlined aqueducts. As water gets increasingly scarce, these canals are being lined with concrete, polymers , or impermeable soil. In some cases,

1320-479: Is "the great city". The ruins of Kuyunjiq, Nimrud , Karamlesh and Khorsabad form the four corners of an irregular quadrilateral. The ruins of the "great city" Nineveh, with the whole area included within the parallelogram they form by lines drawn from the one to the other, are generally regarded as consisting of these four sites. The description of Nineveh in Jonah likely was a reference to greater Nineveh, including

1408-579: Is also contemporary with the Proto-Elamite period in Susa. At this time, Nineveh was still an autonomous city-state . It was incorporated into the Akkadian Empire . The early city (and subsequent buildings) was constructed on a fault line and, consequently, suffered damage from a number of earthquakes. One such event destroyed the first temple of Ishtar, which was rebuilt in 2260 BC by

1496-532: Is believed to have some of the earliest aqueducts. Evidence can be found at the sites of present-day Hampi, Karnataka . The massive aqueducts near Tungabhadra River supplying irrigation water were once 15 miles (24 km) long. The waterways supplied water to royal bath tubs. In Oman from the Iron Age , in Salut, Bat, and other sites, a system of underground aqueducts called falaj or qanāts were constructed,

1584-656: Is called a qanat. One historic example found in Syria, the Qanat Firaun, extends over 100 kilometers. Modern aqueducts may also make extensive use of pipelines. Pipelines are useful for transporting water over long distances when it needs to move over hills, or where open channels are poor choices due to considerations of evaporation , freezing, pollution, or environmental impact. They can also be used to carry treated water . Historically, agricultural societies have constructed aqueducts to irrigate crops. Archimedes invented

1672-723: Is derived from the Latin words aqua ( water ) and ductus ( led or guided ). Although particularly associated with the Romans, aqueducts were devised much earlier in Greece, the Near East , Nile Valley , and Indian subcontinent , where peoples such as the Egyptians and Harappans built sophisticated irrigation systems. The Aztecs and Incans also built such systems independently later. Roman-style aqueducts were used as early as

1760-590: Is dwarfed by aqueducts in the far west of the country, most notably the 242-mile (389-km) Colorado River Aqueduct , which supplies the Los Angeles area with water from the Colorado River nearly 250 miles to the east and the 701.5-mile (1,129.0 km) California Aqueduct , which runs from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Lake Perris . The Central Arizona Project is the largest and most expensive aqueduct constructed in

1848-466: Is evidence of repairs at the temple of Nabu after 612 and for the continued use of Sennacherib's palace. There is evidence of syncretic Hellenistic cults. A statue of Hermes has been found and a Greek inscription attached to a shrine of the Sebitti . A statue of Herakles Epitrapezios dated to the 2nd century AD has also been found. The library of Ashurbanipal may still have been in use until around

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1936-420: Is located below the destroyed Mosque of the prophet Jonah on Tell Nebi Yunus. Archaeological excavations are conducted since 2019. Subsequently, an extensive research project, currently under the direction of Stefan M. Maul , University of Heidelberg, developed, focusing also on other areas of Nineveh. At Tell Kuyunjiq, activities started in 2021 with rescue and restoration measures for the destroyed reliefs in

2024-950: Is not clear whether Nineveh came under the rule of the Medes or the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 612. The Babylonian Chronicle Concerning the Fall of Nineveh records that Nineveh was "turned into mounds and heaps", but this is literary hyperbole. The complete destruction of Nineveh has traditionally been seen as confirmed by the Hebrew Book of Ezekiel and the Greek Retreat of the Ten Thousand of Xenophon (d. 354 BC). There are no later cuneiform tablets in Akkadian from Nineveh. Although devastated in 612,

2112-510: Is now one immense area of ruins overlaid by c. one third by the Nebi Yunus suburbs of the city of eastern Mosul. The site of ancient Nineveh is bisected by the Khosr river. North of the Khosr, the site is called Kuyunjiq, including the acropolis of Tell Kuyunjiq; the illegal village of Rahmaniye lay in eastern Kuyunjiq. South of the Khosr, the urbanized area is called Nebi Yunus (also Ghazliya, Jezayr, Jammasa), including Tell Nebi Yunus where

2200-542: Is the southern sector around of the mosque of Prophet Yunus/Jonah, which is located on Tell Nebi Yunus. The remains of ancient Nineveh, the areas of Kuyunjiq and Nabī Yūnus with their mounds, are located on a level part of the plain at the junction of the Tigris and the Khosr Rivers within an area of 750 hectares (1,900 acres) circumscribed by a 12-kilometre (7.5 mi) fortification wall. This whole extensive space

2288-704: The Akkadian king Manishtushu . In the final phase of the Early Bronze, Mesopotamia was dominated by the Ur III empire. After the fall of Ur in 2000 BC, with the transition into the Middle Bronze, Nineveh was absorbed into the rising power of Assyria . The historic Nineveh is mentioned in the Old Assyrian Empire during the reign of Shamshi-Adad I (1809-1775) in about 1800 BC as

2376-675: The Al Ain Oasis , in present-day Abu Dhabi Emirate , uses rills as part of its qanat water system. Sometimes in the Spanish language they are called Acequias . Rills are also used for aesthetic purposes in landscape design. Rills are used as narrow channels of water inset into the pavement of a garden , as linear water features , and often tiled and part of a fountain design. The historical origins are from paradise garden religious images that first translated into ancient Persian Gardens . Rills were later exceptionally developed in

2464-716: The East and the West, it received wealth from many sources, so that it became one of the greatest of all the region's ancient cities, and the last capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire . Nineveh was one of the oldest and greatest cities in antiquity. Texts from the Hellenistic period later offered an eponymous Ninus as the founder of Νίνου πόλις (Ninopolis), although there is no historical basis for this. Book of Genesis 10:11 says that Nimrod or Ashur , depending on

2552-610: The Hebrew Bible , Nineveh is first mentioned in Genesis 10:11: " Ashur left that land, and built Nineveh". Some modern English translations interpret "Ashur" in the Hebrew of this verse as the country "Assyria" rather than a person, thus making Nimrod , rather than Ashur, the founder of Nineveh. Sir Walter Raleigh 's notion that Nimrod built Nineveh has been disputed by eighteenth century scholar Samuel Shuckford . The discovery of

2640-491: The Metropolitan Museum . The study of the archaeology of Nineveh reveals the wealth and glory of ancient Assyria under kings such as Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) and Ashurbanipal (669–626 BC). The work of exploration was carried on by Hormuzd Rassam (an Assyrian ), George Smith and others, and a vast treasury of specimens of Assyria was incrementally exhumed for European museums. Palace after palace

2728-557: The Middle Ages and was mostly abandoned by the 13th century AD. Its ruins lie across the river from the historical city center of Mosul. The two main tells , or mound-ruins, within the walls are Tell Kuyunjiq and Tell Nabī Yūnus , site of a shrine to Jonah . According to the Hebrew Bible and the Quran , Jonah was a prophet who preached to Nineveh. Large numbers of Assyrian sculptures and other artifacts have been excavated from

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2816-954: The Moorish (Spanish) Gardens of Al-andalus , such as at the Alhambra in Granada ; and also in other Islamic gardens, cultures, and countries. Early 20th century examples are in the María Luisa Park gardens in Seville, Spain; and at the Casa del Herrero gardens in Montecito, California . Aqueducts sometimes run for some or all of their path through tunnels constructed underground. A version of this common in North Africa and Central Asia that has vertical wells at regular intervals

2904-590: The Nabataean engineers took advantage of every natural spring and every winter downpour to channel water where it was needed. They constructed aqueducts and piping systems that allowed water to flow across mountains, through gorges and into the temples, homes, and gardens of Petra's citizens. Walking through the Siq , one can easily spot the remains of channels that directed water to the city center, as well as durable retention dams that kept powerful flood waters at bay. On

2992-420: The Neo-Assyrian Empire , particularly from the time of Ashurnasirpal II (ruled 883–859 BC) onward, there was considerable architectural expansion. Successive monarchs such as Tiglath-pileser III , Sargon II , Sennacherib , Esarhaddon , and Ashurbanipal maintained and founded new palaces, as well as temples to Sîn , Ashur , Nergal , Shamash , Ninurta , Ishtar , Tammuz , Nisroch and Nabu . It

3080-681: The South–North Water Transfer Project aims to connect the Yangtze River basin to Beijing through three separate systems. The project will reuse part of the Grand Canal of China . The simplest aqueducts are small ditches cut into the earth. Much larger channels may be used in modern aqueducts, for instance the Central Arizona Project uses 7.3 m (24 ft) wide channels. A major factor in

3168-635: The Uruk Expansion because of its location as the highest navigable point on the Tigris. It was contemporary and had a similar function to Habuba Kabira on the Euphrates. By 3000 BC, the Kish civilization had expanded into Nineveh. At this time, the main temple of Nineveh becomes known as Ishtar temple, re-dedicated to the Semite goddess Ishtar , in the form of Ishtar of Nineveh. Ishtar of Nineveh

3256-528: The water screw to raise water for use in irrigation of croplands. Another use for aqueducts is to supply large cities with drinking water. They also help drought-prone areas with water supply . Some of the Roman aqueducts still supply water to Rome today. In California , United States, three large aqueducts supply water over hundreds of miles to the Los Angeles area. Two are from the Owens River area, and

3344-622: The 7th century BC, when the Assyrians built an 80 km long limestone aqueduct, which included a 10 m high section to cross a 300 m wide valley, to carry water to their capital city, Nineveh . Although particularly associated with the Romans , aqueducts were likely first used by the Minoans around 2000 BCE. The Minoans had developed what was then an extremely advanced irrigation system , including several aqueducts. The Indian subcontinent

3432-524: The Great restored the temple of Ishtar at Nineveh and probably encouraged resettlement. A number of cuneiform Elamite tablets have been found at Nineveh. They probably date from the time of the revival of Elam in the century following the collapse of Assyria. The Hebrew Book of Jonah , which Stephanie Dalley asserts was written in the 4th century BC, is an account of the city's repentance and God's mercy which prevented destruction. Archaeologically, there

3520-769: The Mitanni Empire and creating the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BC). There is a large body of evidence to show that Assyrian monarchs built extensively in Nineveh during the late 3rd and 2nd millenniums BC; it appears to have been originally an "Assyrian provincial town". Later monarchs whose inscriptions have appeared on the high city include the Middle Assyrian Empire kings Shalmaneser I (1274–1245 BC) and Tiglath-Pileser I (1114–1076 BC), both of whom were active builders in Assur (Ashur). During

3608-778: The New Croton Aqueduct flow to the Jerome Park Reservoir in the Bronx before entering Croton Water Filtration Plant in Van Cortlandt Park for treatment, then out to distribution. The Croton Watershed is one of three systems that provide water to New York City, joined by the waters of the Delaware and Catskill Aqueducts. The Croton system comprises 12 reservoirs and 3 controlled lakes. The New Croton Aqueduct opened on July 15, 1890, replacing

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3696-400: The Old Croton Aqueduct. The newer aqueduct is a brick-lined tunnel, 13 feet (4.0 m) in diameter and 33 miles (53 km) long, running from the New Croton Reservoir in Westchester County to the Jerome Park Reservoir in the Bronx. Water flows then proceed toward the Croton Water Filtration Plant for treatment. Treated water is distributed to certain areas of the Bronx and Manhattan . In

3784-469: The Tigris, possibly originally of Hurrian origin. The word נון/נונא in Old Babylonian refers to the Anthiinae genus of fish, further indicating the possibility of an association between the name Nineveh and fish. In the Quran , Jonah is referred to as Dhu'n-Nun "owner of the fish", though this may be related to the story of him being swallowed by a "large fish". Nabī Yūnus is the Arabic for "Prophet Jonah ". Kuyunjiq was, according to Layard ,

3872-513: The United States. It stretches 336 miles from its source near Parker, Arizona to the metropolitan areas of Phoenix and Tucson . An aqueduct in New Zealand, "the Oamaru Borough Race", was constructed in the late 19th century to deliver water (and water-power) about 50 km from the Waitaki River at Kurow to the coastal town of Oamaru . In Spain, the Tagus-Segura Water Transfer system of aqueducts opened in 1979 and transports water 286 kilometres (178 mi) from north to south. In China,

3960-498: The aqueduct system remains a mystery to archaeologists; it is suspected that Guayabo's aqueducts sat at a point of ancient cultural confluence between Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas. When Europeans saw the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan , early in the 16th century, the city was watered by two aqueducts. One of these, Chapultepec aqueduct , built c.  1420 , was rebuilt by the Spanish almost three hundred years later. Originally tracing part of its path over now-gone Lake Texcoco , only

4048-419: The archaeological period known as Ninevite 5 , or Ninevite V (2900–2600 BC). This period is defined primarily by the characteristic pottery that is found widely throughout Upper Mesopotamia. Also, for the Upper Mesopotamian region, the Early Jezirah chronology has been developed by archaeologists. According to this regional chronology, 'Ninevite 5' is equivalent to the Early Jezirah I–II period. Ninevite 5

4136-547: The beasts in the city. Nineveh's repentance and salvation from evil can be found in the Hebrew Tanakh , also known as the Old Testament , and referred to in the Christian New Testament and Muslim Quran . To this day, Syriac and Oriental Orthodox churches commemorate the three days Jonah spent inside the fish during the Fast of Nineveh . Some Christians observe this holiday fast by refraining from food and drink, with churches encouraging followers to refrain from dairy products, fish and other meats. The location of Nineveh

4224-466: The city was not completely abandoned. Yet, to the Greek historians Ctesias and Herodotus (c. 400 BC), Nineveh was a thing of the past; and when Xenophon passed the place in the 4th century BC he described it as abandoned. The earliest piece of written evidence for the persistence of Nineveh as a settlement is possibly the Cyrus Cylinder of 539/538 BC, but the reading of this is disputed. If correctly read as Nineveh, it indicates that Cyrus

4312-478: The death of its last great king Ashurbanipal , the Neo-Assyrian Empire began to unravel through a series of bitter civil wars between rival claimants for the throne, and in 616 BC Assyria was attacked by its own former vassals, the Chaldean , Babylonians , Medes and Scythians . In about 616 BC Kalhu was sacked, the allied forces eventually reached Nineveh, besieging and sacking the city in 612 BC, following bitter house-to-house fighting, after which it

4400-493: The design of all open channels is its gradient. A higher gradient allows a smaller channel to carry the same amount of water as a larger channel with a lower gradient, but increases the potential of the water to damage the aqueduct's structure. A typical Roman aqueduct had a gradient of about 1:4800. A constructed functional rill is a small canal or aqueduct of stone, brick, concrete, or other lining material, usually rectilinear in cross section , for water transportation from

4488-468: The empire, and set a standard of engineering that was not surpassed for more than a thousand years. Bridges, built in stone with multiple arches, were a distinctive feature of Roman aqueducts and hence the term aqueduct is often applied specifically to a bridge for carrying water . Near the Peruvian town of Nazca, an ancient pre-Columbian system of aqueducts called puquios were built and are still in use today. They were made of intricately placed stones,

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4576-430: The exact elevation between the two reservoirs and the exact gradient of the canal to such fine precision had been lost with the fall of the civilization in 13th Century. Modern aqueducts are a central part of many countries' water distribution infrastructure. The United States' aqueducts are some of the world's largest. The Catskill Aqueduct carries water to New York City over a distance of 120 miles (190 km), but

4664-437: The fall of the empire of which it was the capital. Nineveh is also the setting of the Book of Tobit . The Book of Jonah , set in the days of the Assyrian Empire, describes it as an "exceedingly great city of three days' journey in breadth", whose population at that time is given as "more than 120,000". Genesis 10:11–12 lists four cities "Nineveh, Rehoboth , Calah , and Resen ", ambiguously stating that either Resen or Calah

4752-427: The fifteen Jubilees texts found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls has since shown that, according to the Jewish sects of Qumran, Genesis 10:11 affirms the apportionment of Nineveh to Ashur. The attribution of Nineveh to Ashur is also supported by the Greek Septuagint , King James Bible , Geneva Bible , and by Roman historian Flavius Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews (Antiquities, i, vi, 4). Nineveh

4840-414: The final carving was done. Most of the statues weigh between 9,000 and 27,000 kilograms (19,842 and 59,525 lb). The stone carvings in the walls include many battle scenes, impalings and scenes showing Sennacherib's men parading the spoils of war before him. The inscriptions boasted of his conquests: he wrote of Babylon : "Its inhabitants, young and old, I did not spare, and with their corpses I filled

4928-404: The garden which Sennacherib built next to his palace, with its associated irrigation works, were the original Hanging Gardens of Babylon ; Dalley's argument is based on a disputation of the traditional placement of the Hanging Gardens attributed to Berossus together with a combination of literary and archaeological evidence. The greatness of Nineveh was short-lived. In around 627 BC, after

5016-422: The hills to Nineveh, and several sections of a magnificently constructed aqueduct erected by Sennacherib were discovered at Jerwan , about 65 kilometres (40 mi) distant. The enclosed area had more than 100,000 inhabitants (maybe closer to 150,000), about twice as many as Babylon at the time, placing it among the largest settlements worldwide. Some scholars such as Stephanie Dalley at Oxford believe that

5104-498: The island of Samos , the Tunnel of Eupalinos was built during the reign of Polycrates (538–522 BC). It is considered an underground aqueduct and brought fresh water to Pythagoreion for roughly a thousand years. Roman aqueducts were built in all parts of the Roman Empire , from Germany to Africa, and especially in the city of Rome, where they totalled over 415 kilometres (258 mi). The aqueducts supplied fresh water to public baths and for drinking water, in large cities across

5192-415: The largest city in the world for approximately fifty years until the year 612 BC when, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria, it was sacked by a coalition of its former subject peoples including the Babylonians , Medes , and Scythians . The city was never again a political or administrative centre, but by Late Antiquity it was the seat of a Christian bishop. It declined relative to Mosul during

5280-413: The late 1990s, the city stopped using water from the Croton system due to numerous water quality issues. In 1997 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Justice and the State of New York filed suit against the city for violating the Safe Drinking Water Act and the New York State Sanitary Code. The city government agreed to rehabilitate the New Croton Aqueduct and build

5368-402: The modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River and was the capital and largest city of the Neo-Assyrian Empire , as well as the largest city in the world for several decades. Today, it is a common name for the half of Mosul that lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and the country's Nineveh Governorate takes its name from it. It was

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5456-399: The mosque of the Prophet Jonah and a palace of Esarhaddon / Ashurbanipal below it are located. South of the street Al-'Asady (made by Daesh destroying swaths of the city walls) the area is called Jounub Ninawah or Shara Pepsi. Nineveh was an important junction for commercial routes crossing the Tigris on the great roadway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean , thus uniting

5544-516: The mound of Tell Nebi Yunus, which was the ancient arsenal of Nineveh, or along the outside walls. Here, near the northwestern corner of the walls, beyond the pavement of a later building, the archaeologists found almost 300 fragments of prisms recording the royal annals of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal, beside a prism of Esarhaddon which was almost perfect. After the Second World War , several excavations were carried out by Iraqi archaeologists. From 1951 to 1958, Mohammed Ali Mustafa worked

5632-412: The name is unclear but may have referred to a patron goddess . The city was said to be devoted to "the goddess Inanna of Nineveh" and Nina was one of the Sumerian and Assyrian names for that goddess. The Assyrian cuneiform for Ninâ ( 𒀏 ) is a fish within a house (cf. Aramaic nuna , "fish"). This may have simply intended "Place of Fish" or may have indicated a goddess associated with fish or

5720-704: The palace. The solid foundation was made out of limestone blocks and mud bricks; it was 22 metres (72 ft) tall. In total, the foundation is made of roughly 2,680,000 cubic metres (3,505,308 cu yd) of brick (approximately 160 million bricks). The walls on top, made out of mud brick, were an additional 20 metres (66 ft) tall. Some of the principal doorways were flanked by colossal stone lamassu door figures weighing up to 30,000 kilograms (30 t); these were winged Mesopotamian lions or bulls , with human heads. These were transported 50 kilometres (31 mi) from quarries at Balatai, and they had to be lifted up 20 metres (66 ft) once they arrived at

5808-414: The period between 4500 and 4000 BC it grew to 40 hectares in size. The greater Nineveh area is notable in the diffusion of metal technology across the near east as the first location outside of Anatolia to smelt copper. Tell Arpachiyah has the oldest copper smelting remains, and Tepe Gawa has the oldest metal work. The copper came from the mines at Ergani . Nineveh became a trade colony of Uruk during

5896-420: The prophet Nahum is almost exclusively taken up with prophetic denunciations against Nineveh. Its ruin and utter desolation are foretold. Its end was strange, sudden, and tragic. According to the Bible, it was God's doing, his judgment on Assyria's pride. In fulfillment of prophecy, God made "an utter end of the place". It became a "desolation". The prophet Zephaniah also predicts its destruction along with

5984-486: The ruins of Nineveh, and are now located in museums around the world. The English placename Nineveh comes from the Latin Nīnevē and the Koine Greek Nineuḗ ( Νινευή ) under influence of the Biblical Hebrew Nīnəweh ( נִינְוֶה ), from the Akkadian Ninua ( var. Ninâ ) or Ninuwā . The city was also known as Ninuwa in Mari ; Ninawa in Aramaic ; Ninwe (ܢܸܢܘܵܐ) in Syriac ; and Ninawa ( نینوا ) in Arabic . The original meaning of

6072-432: The ruins of a building at the 20 km far-away mound of Khorsabad , which, on further exploration, turned out to be the royal palace of Sargon II , in which large numbers of reliefs were found and recorded, though they had been damaged by fire and were mostly too fragile to remove. In 1847 the young British diplomat Austen Henry Layard explored the ruins. Layard did not use modern archaeological methods; his stated goal

6160-406: The several gates and the existent mudbrick walls, as well as the system that supplied water to the city in times of siege. The excavation reports are in progress. After Mosul’s liberation from the control of the Islamic State (IS), Peter A. Miglus , University of Heidelberg, established a rescue project in 2018, exploring and documenting the intrusive IS tunnels in the Assyrian Military Palace that

6248-415: The site of the Temple of Nabu , the god of writing, where another cuneiform library was supposed to exist. However, no such library was ever found: most likely, it had been destroyed by the activities of later residents. The excavations started again in 1927, under the direction of Campbell Thompson , who had taken part in King's expeditions. Some works were carried out outside Kuyunjiq, for instance on

6336-482: The site, presumably by a ramp . There are also 3,000 metres (9,843 ft) of stone Assyrian palace reliefs , that include pictorial records documenting every construction step including carving the statues and transporting them on a barge. One picture shows 44 men towing a colossal statue. The carving shows three men directing the operation while standing on the Colossus. Once the statues arrived at their destination,

6424-491: The site. The work was continued from 1967 through 1971 by Tariq Madhloom. Some additional excavation occurred by Manhal Jabur from the early 1970s to 1987. For the most part, these digs focused on Tell Nebi Yunus. The British archaeologist and Assyriologist Professor David Stronach of the University of California, Berkeley conducted a series of surveys and digs at the site from 1987 to 1990, focusing his attentions on

6512-894: The streets of the city." A full and characteristic set shows the campaign leading up to the siege of Lachish in 701; it is the "finest" from the reign of Sennacherib , and now in the British Museum. He later wrote about a battle in Lachish : "And Hezekiah of Judah who had not submitted to my yoke...him I shut up in Jerusalem his royal city like a caged bird. Earthworks I threw up against him, and anyone coming out of his city gate I made pay for his crime. His cities which I had plundered I had cut off from his land." At this time, Nineveh comprised about 7 square kilometres (1,730 acres) of land, and fifteen great gates penetrated its walls. An elaborate system of eighteen canals brought water from

6600-560: The surrounding cities of Rehoboth, Calah and Resen The Book of Jonah depicts Nineveh as a wicked city worthy of destruction. God sent Jonah to preach to the Ninevites of their coming destruction, and they fasted and repented because of this. As a result, God spared the city; when Jonah protests against this, God states he is showing mercy for the population who are ignorant of the difference between right and wrong ("who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand" ) and mercy for

6688-704: The time of Alexander the Great . The city was actively resettled under the Seleucid Empire . There is evidence of more changes in Sennacherib's palace under the Parthian Empire . The Parthians also established a municipal mint at Nineveh coining in bronze. According to Tacitus , in AD 50 Meherdates , a claimant to the Parthian throne with Roman support, took Nineveh. By Late Antiquity , Nineveh

6776-554: The translation, built Nineveh. The context of Nineveh was as one of many centers within the regional development of Upper Mesopotamia . This area is defined as the plains which can support rain-fed agriculture. It exists as a narrow band from the Syrian coast to the Zagros mountains . It is bordered by deserts to the south and mountains to the north. The cultural practices, technology, and economy in this region were shared and they followed

6864-516: Was Sennacherib who made Nineveh a truly influential city ( c.  700 BC ), as he laid out new streets and squares and built within it the South West Palace, or "palace without a rival", the plan of which has been mostly recovered and has overall dimensions of about 503 by 242 metres (1,650 ft × 794 ft). It had at least 80 rooms, many of which were lined with sculpture. A large number of cuneiform tablets were found in

6952-667: Was "to obtain the largest possible number of well preserved objects of art at the least possible outlay of time and money". In the Kuyunjiq mound, Layard rediscovered in 1849 the lost palace of Sennacherib with its 71 rooms and colossal bas-reliefs . He also unearthed the palace and famous library of Ashurbanipal with 22,000 cuneiform clay tablets. Most of Layard's material was sent to the British Museum , but others were dispersed elsewhere as two large pieces which were given to Lady Charlotte Guest and eventually found their way to

7040-670: Was conflated with Šauška from the Hurro-Urartian pantheon. This temple was called 'House of Exorcists' ( Cuneiform : 𒂷𒈦𒈦 GA 2 .MAŠ.MAŠ; Sumerian : e 2 mašmaš). The context of the etymology surrounding the name is the Exorcist called a Mashmash in Sumerian, was a freelance magician who operated independent of the official priesthood, and was in part a medical professional via the act of expelling demons. The regional influence of Nineveh became particularly pronounced during

7128-444: Was discovered, with their decorations and their sculptured slabs, revealing the life and manners of this ancient people, their arts of war and peace, the forms of their religion, the style of their architecture, and the magnificence of their monarchs. The mound of Kuyunjiq was excavated again by the archaeologists of the British Museum , led by Leonard William King , at the beginning of the 20th century. Their efforts concentrated on

7216-459: Was known, to some, continuously through the Middle Ages. Benjamin of Tudela visited it in 1170; Petachiah of Regensburg soon after. Carsten Niebuhr recorded its location during the 1761–1767 Danish expedition . Niebuhr wrote afterwards that "I did not learn that I was at so remarkable a spot, till near the river. Then they showed me a village on a great hill, which they call Nunia, and

7304-689: Was not called Mosul until after the Arab conquests . It may have been called Hesnā ʿEbrāyē (Jews' Fort). In 627, the city was the site of the Battle of Nineveh between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanians. In 641, it was conquered by the Arabs , who built a mosque on the west bank and turned it into an administrative centre. Under the Umayyad dynasty , Mosul eclipsed Nineveh, which

7392-845: Was preceded by the Late Uruk period . Ninevite 5 pottery is roughly contemporary to the Early Transcaucasian culture ware, and the Jemdet Nasr period ware. Iraqi Scarlet Ware culture also belongs to this period; this colourful painted pottery is somewhat similar to Jemdet Nasr ware. Scarlet Ware was first documented in the Diyala River basin in Iraq. Later, it was also found in the nearby Hamrin Basin , and in Luristan . It

7480-427: Was razed. Most of the people in the city who could not escape to the last Assyrian strongholds in the north and west were either massacred or deported out of the city and into the countryside where they founded new settlements. Many unburied skeletons were found by the archaeologists at the site. The Assyrian Empire then came to an end by 605 BC, the Medes and Babylonians dividing its colonies between themselves. It

7568-431: Was reduced to a Christian suburb with limited new construction. By the 13th century, Nineveh was mostly ruins and was subsequently absorbed into Mosul. A church was converted into a Muslim shrine to the prophet Jonah , which continued to attract pilgrims until its destruction by ISIL in 2014 . The modern city of Mosul is occasionally referred to as Nineveh, such as during the operation to retake Mosul in 2016-17. In

7656-587: Was restricted to the east bank of the Tigris and the west bank was uninhabited. Under the Sasanian Empire , Nineveh was not an administrative centre. By the 2nd century AD there were Christians present and by 554 it was a bishopric of the Church of the East . King Khosrow II (591–628) built a fortress on the west bank, and two Christian monasteries were constructed around 570 and 595. This growing settlement

7744-529: Was the flourishing capital of the Assyrian Empire and was the home of King Sennacherib , King of Assyria, during the Biblical reign of King Hezekiah ( חִזְקִיָּהוּ ) and the lifetime of Judean prophet Isaiah ( ישעיה ). As recorded in Hebrew scripture, Nineveh was also the place where Sennacherib died at the hands of his two sons, who then fled to the vassal land of `rrt ( Urartu ). The book of

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