One of these Assyri-

an kings, Sennacherib,

bragged that he had

destroyed 89 cities

and 820 villages,

burned Babylon, and

ordered most of its

inhabitants killed. The

Assyria is a society

that glorified military

strength.

Breaking news: Ar-

chaeologists excavating the

Fertile Crescent came

across clay tablets and oth-

er artifacts that suggest that

the Assyrian Empire existed

there. Let us explore about

the Assyrian Empire.

The Invaders are frequent-

ly sweeping down the As-

syria from the nearby

mountains. The Assyrians

eventually developed their

warlike behavior in re-

sponse to these invasions.

This gaining more intelli-

gence had made them train

more warriors. Through

constant warfare, the As-

syrian kings eventually

built an empire that

stretched from east and

north of the Tigris River

all the way to central

Rise of the Assyrian’s

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The Assyrians came from the

northern part of Mesopotamia.

Their flat, exposed land made

them a target for other people

to attack.

Its soldiers were well equipped

for conquering any empire.

Making use of the iron-working

technology of the time, the

soldiers covered themselves in

stiff leather and metal armor.

They wore copper helmets,

padded loincloths, and leather

skirts layered with metal scales.

When deep water blocked their passage, engineers

would span the rivers with pontoons, or floating struc-

tures used to support a bridge. Before attacking, the As-

syrians dug beneath the city’s walls to weaken them.

Then with disciplined organization, the foot soldiers ap-

proached the city walls and shot wave upon wave of ar-

rows. King Sennacherib who had burned Babylonia es-

tablished Assyria’s capital at Nineveh along the Tigris.

Page 1: Rise of

the Assyrian’s

Page 2—3 :

Assyrian

Accomplish-

ments

Page 4: Fall of

the Assyrian’s

P A G E 2

B A C K I N T I M E

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon is one of the lost Seven Wonders of the World but it might not have been locat-ed in Babylon after all. According to Stephanie Dalley, an Oxford University Assyriologist, the Hanging Gardens were located about 340 miles north of ancient Babylon in Nineveh.

The Assyrian king, King Sennacherib, is believed to have made the Hanging Gardens as he was the one who made Nineveh and created a massive system of waterworks, including an aqueduct that carried water to the city from hills 40 miles away. There are many written records of King Sennacherib’s irrigation and garden-building prow-ess. The inscriptions of Sennacherib in particular refer proudly to his great network of canals, and describe them in the context of luxurious gardens and parks. On the other hand, King Nebuchadnezzar—the ruler tradi-tionally associated with Babylon's hanging gardens—never mentions gardens, even though he wrote about the many accomplishments during his reign of Babylon.

Some Assyrians Kings were even great builders such as the King

Sennacherib. He made the first Assyrian capital known as Nineveh,

the largest city of that time, by burning Babylon. Nineveh con-

tained one of the ancient world’s largest libraries. King Sennacherib

is also credited with destroying 89 cities and 820 villages. King Ash-

urbanipal was another talented ruler of Assyria who knew many lan-

guages and had gathered more than 25,000 clay tablets. Since the

clay tablets were oven baked, they survived when Nineveh was

burned and gave us valuable insight about the Assyrians. They also

created many ideas and technologies used today, including the first

postal system.

Assyrian Accomplishments P A G E 3

The Assyrians were known for founding one of the ancient

world’s earliest civilizations. They succeeded in conquering Mes-

opotamia and their neighboring lands. They were able to partly

succeed because of the strong kings that controlled the empire.

Though, not all of the kings were simply waging war but also tal-

ented kings who helped the Assyrian empire prosper.

Ashurbanipal proved to be

one of the last of the

strong Assyrian kings. As-

syrians had weakened. Also,

the cruelty displayed by the

Assyrians had earned them

many enemies. Shortly af-

ter Ashurbanipal’s death,

Nineveh fell. In 612 BC, a

combined army of Medes,

Chaldeans, and others

burned and leveled Nine-

veh.

The Assyrian government

also served as a model for

future empires, especially

the Persian and Roman. The

Assyrian Empire was known

for its brutal and cruel war-

riors with well-organized

and well-equipped armies

following empires. The that

ruled over the region such

as Persia followed the meth-

ods of the Assyrians to sta-

bilize the region.

Fall of the Assyrian Empire