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Assyria
2500 BC–609 BC
Overview map in the 15th century BC showing the core territory of Assyria with its two major cities Assur and Nineveh wedged between Babylonia downstream on the Tigris and the states of Mitanni and Hatti upstream.
Overview map in the 15th century BC showing the core territory of Assyria with its two major cities Assur and Nineveh wedged between Babylonia downstream on the Tigris and the states of Mitanni and Hatti upstream.
Capital Aššur
(2500–1754 BC)
Shubat-Enlil
(1754–1681 BC)
Aššur
(1681–879 BC)
Kalhu
(879–706 BC)
Dur-Sharrukin
(706–705 BC)
Nineveh
(705–612 BC)
Harran
(612–609 BC)
Official languages
Common languages Akkadian
Aramaic
Religion
Ancient Mesopotamian religion
Government Monarchy
King  
• c. 2500 BC
 Tudiya (first)
• 612–609 BC
 Ashur-uballit II (last)
Historical era Bronze Age
• Kikkiya overthrown
 2500 BC
• Decline of Assyria
 612 BC 609 BC
Area
194,249 km2 (75,000 sq mi)
Currency Mina
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Akkadian Empire
Median Empire
Neo-Babylonian Empire

Assyria, also called the Assyrian Empire, was a Mesopotamian kingdom and empire of the ancient Near East in the area today known as the Levant that existed as a state from perhaps as early as the 25th century BC (in the form of the Assur city-state) until its collapse between 612 BC and 609 BC — spanning the periods of the Early to Middle Bronze Age through to the late Iron Age.

This vast span of time is divided into the Early Period (2500–2025 BC), Old Assyrian Empire (2025–1378 BC), Middle Assyrian Empire (1392–934 BC) and Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–609 BC).

Assyria was centred on the Tigris in Upper Mesopotamia, in modern terms, northern Iraq, northeast Syria, and southeast Turkey.

The Assyrians came to rule powerful empires in several periods. Making up a substantial part of the greater Mesopotamian "cradle of civilization", which included Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, and Babylonia, Assyria reached the height of technological, scientific and cultural achievements for its time.

Starting around 900 BC, the Assyrians began campaigning to expand their empire and to dominate other people. They conquered, exacted tribute, building new fortified towns, palaces and tempels.

The Assyrians created an empire that stretched from eastern Libya and Cyprus in the East Mediterranean to Iran, and from present-day Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Transcaucasia to the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt in the south.

The name "Assyria" originates with the Assyrian state's original capital, the ancient city of Aššur, which dates to c. 2600 BC — originally one of a number of Akkadian-speaking city-states in Mesopotamia.

Assyrian people

Assyrians are an ethnic group whose descendents remain in what is today Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, but who have gone to the Caucasus, North America and Western Europe during the past century. Hundreds of thousands more live in Assyrian diaspora and Iraqi refugee communities in Europe, the former Soviet Union, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Related pages

Images for kids

  • Female head from Assur, Iraq, 2400-2100 BCE. Pergamon Museum

    Head of a female figure, dating to the Akkadian period (c. 2334–2154 BC), found at Assur, on display at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

  • KültepeUnterstadt1

    Ruins of the Old Assyrian trading colony at Kültepe

  • Tilglath pileser iii

    Partial relief of Tiglath-Pileser III (r.745–727 BC), under whom the Neo-Assyrian Empire was consolidated, centralized and significantly expanded

  • Detail. Parthian stele from Ashur, Iraq. 1st century BCE to 1st century CE. Museum of Archaeology, Istanbul, Turkey

    Detail of a stele in the style of the Neo-Assyrian royal steles erected in Assur in the 2nd century AD (under Parthian rule) by the local ruler Rʻuth-Assor

  • Denis Bourez - British Museum, London (8748213226)

    Neo-Assyrian relief depicting some Assyrian individuals in a procession

  • Naqi'a crop

    Relief depicting Naqi'a, mother of Esarhaddon (r.681–669 BC) and one of the most influential women in Assyrian history

  • Cuneiform tablet case impressed with four cylinder seals Old Assyrian

    Old Assyrian cuneiform tablet from Kültepe recording the repayment of a loan, impressed with four different cylinder seals

  • Ashurbanipal wall relief, 7th century BC, from Nineveh, the British Museum

    7th-century BC relief depicting Ashurbanipal (r.669–631 BC) and two royal attendants

  • Cuneiform tablet- caravan account MET DP-13441-005

    Old Assyrian cuneiform tablet containing an account of a caravan journey

  • Syriac papyri

    9th-century AD piece of papyrus with Syriac language writing

  • Artist’s impression of Assyrian palaces from The Monuments of Nineveh by Sir Austen Henry Layard, 1853

    19th-century reconstruction of Nineveh (Assyrian capital 705–612 BC)

  • Ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, and Persian costumes and decorations (1920) (14741970056)

    20th-century illustration of decorative patterns found in ancient Assyrian reliefs and garments

  • Library of Ashurbanipal The Flood Tablet

    Tablet from the Library of Ashurbanipal containing a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh

  • Statue of a praying woman from the Archaic Ishtar Temple of Assur, Iraq. 2400 BCE. Pergamon Museum

    Statue of a praying woman, 25th century BC

  • Cult wall relief from Assur. A deity, probably god Assur, is flanked by 2 water deities and 2 goats. 2000-1500 BCE. Pergamon Museum, Berlin

    Wall relief probably depicting Ashur, 21st–16th century BC

  • Middle Assyrian winged horse cylinder seal

    Cylinder seal and impression, 14th–13th century BC

  • Temple altar offered by Tukulti-Ninurta I. 1243-1207 BCE. From Assur, Iraq. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul

    Temple altar of Tukulti-Ninurta I, 13th century BC

  • 2018 Ashurbanipal - Tile

    Glazed tile depicting a king and attendants, 9th century BC

  • The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, 9th century BC, from Nimrud, Iraq. The British Museum

    The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, 9th century BC

  • Shalmaneser III statue from Nimrud, Iraq. 9th century BCE. Iraq Museum in Baghdad

    Statue of Shalmaneser III, 9th century BC

  • Openwork furniture plaque with a grazing oryx in a forest of fronds MET DP110622

    Furniture ornament, 9th–8th century BC

  • Neo-Assyrian, Nimrud, Queens’ Tombs, Tomb III, Golden Crown

    Crown of Queen Hama, 8th century BC

  • LammasuChicago

    Giant lamassu, 8th century BC

  • Exhibition I am Ashurbanipal king of the world, king of Assyria, British Museum (45972455081)

    Portion of the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal, 7th century BC

See also

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