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Among the major events that took place in the ancient Near East, none were more earth-shattering than the fall of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. The demise of Nineveh was so important because it marked the end of the Assyrian Empire, which at its height stretched from Egypt in the west to Persia in the east and included most of Anatolia, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. The Assyrians ruled their empire with an iron fist and in doing so were able to fleece their subject peoples of their precious minerals and resources, which they then used to build Nineveh and other cities in the Assyrian heartland. Eventually, the enemies of the Assyrians grew tired of the malevolent regime and so came together temporarily to cast off the Assyrian yoke. The great city of Nineveh was all but destroyed in the process.

The destruction of Nineveh left such a strong impression on the psyche of ancient peoples that it was written about for several subsequent centuries in the Babylonian cuneiform annals, the writings of Greek and Roman historians, and even in the Old Testament of the Bible. Nineveh’s fall was so important because for a time it was the greatest city in the ancient worldas it served as a source of inspiration and awe for Assyrians and non-Assyrians alike throughout the region. The workmanship of the city’s temples and palaces was superb and Nineveh boasted of one of the world’s first botanic gardens, which many scholars believe was the inspiration for the fabled “Hanging Gardens of Babylon.” <ref> Dally, Stephanie. “Nineveh, Babylon and the Hanging Gardens: Cuneiform and Classical Sources Reconsidered.” <i>Iraq</i> 56 (1994), p. 182</ref> But the details concerning how the city fell are as important to the city’s history as its great monuments. As great as Nineveh once was, it fell victim to a combination of internal problems within the Assyrian royal house and the ever present and large number of enemies the Assyrians managed to create during their brutal reign of terror over the Near East. In the end, the Assyrians’ enemies saw Nineveh as a symbol of their overlords so they wiped it from the face of the earth.

Nineveh was located in the middle of ancient Assyria, which was centered on the Tigris River in northern Mesopotamia in what would today by the northern part of the Iraq. As part of the Fertile Crescent, much of Assyria had good soil that allowed a surplus in crops and exceptional population growth. Nineveh, like many ancient cities, was built on a mound for defense overlooking the Kosr River, which is a tributary of the Tigris River. Although much of Assyria was fertile crop land in ancient times, the area around Nineveh was exceptionally productive, making it an excellent location for a city. <ref> Mieroop, Marc van de. <i>A History of the Ancient Near East: ca. 3000-323 BC.</i> 2nd ed. (London: Blackwell, 2007), p. 3</ref> For most of Assyrian history, the primary political capital was located in the city of Ashur, but Nineveh’s importance gradually grew until it eclipsed the older city.

Long before Nineveh became the capital of the Assyrian Empire in the early first millennium BC, it was mentioned sporadically in various cuneiform historical texts. There were two notable mentions of the city in the late third millennium BC, the first being during the reign of the Akkadian King Manishutushu (ruled ca. 2269-2255 BC). It , who is believed that Manishutushu to have built a temple to the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war, Ishtar, at Nineveh. <ref> Mieroop, p. 68</ref> Nineveh was also mentioned in a text attributed to a king from the Third Dynasty of Ur king, Shulgi (reigned ca. 2094-2047 BC), although the reference is short and lacks detail. <ref> Beckman, Gary. “Ishtar of Nineveh Reconsidered.” <i>Journal of Cuneiform Studies</i> 50 (1998), p. 1</ref> For over 2,000 years, Nineveh languished as a provincial backwater until the Assyrians invoked their will across the Near East and a particularly energetic king came to the throne.

When Sennacherib (ruled 704-681 BC) assumed the Assyrian throne , he followed in the footsteps of his predecessors by leading his armies into battle and conquering more land for the Assyrian people. But Sennacherib was not content to be remembered as just another conquering Assyrian king, he desired to leave much more for posterity , so after his fifth military campaign he relocated the Assyrian capital from Ashur to Nineveh. <ref> Mieroop, p. 229</ref> Although a settlement already existed at Nineveh, Sennacherib transformed it from a minor religious center dedicated to Ishtar into the premier city of the ancient world.

[[File: Delacroix_sardanapalus_1828.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|1828 Painting “Death of Sardanapalus” By Eugen Eugene Delacroix Depicting the Fall of Nineveh]]

The Assyrian-Egyptian victory at Nineveh in 616 BC would only prove to be a temporary victory ephemeral for King Sin-shar-ishkun (reigned ca. 627-612 BC) (referred to as “Sardanapalus” in the Greek and Roman histories), though, because the enemies of Assyria smelled blood in the water and were lining up to divide the spoils of the once mighty empire. In order to build an effective alliance, Nabopolassar next reached out to an assortment of Assyria’s enemies who were led by the Medes. The strategy for the final victory over the Assyrians and the destruction of Nineveh involved a classic pincer movement whereby the Neo-Babylonians attacked the city from the south and west while the Medes and their allies converged from the north and east. The victory for the allies was completes completed in 612 BC, as was the destruction of Nineveh as , which is documented in the Babylonian Chronicle: