Assyrian Empire

Assyrian Empire

Assyria was an ancient empire located in Southeast Asia in ancient Mesopotamia in the Tigris River valley whose boundaries were: north, the mountains of Armenia, southern Chaldea (Babylon), the Middle East and west Mesopotamia. Assyria assumed a position as a regional power, vying with Babylonia and other lesser powers for dominance of the region.

The most important city wason the banks of the Tigris, near the main temple of his god Assur, the city also named Assur and the country took the same name with Assyria. Other major cities were Nineveh, Haran, Calakh, Dur Sharrukin (today Khorsabad). The Assyrian civilization is very old. This was witnessed by archaeological findings that emerged from the dunes of Nimrud and Khorsabad.

In the ninth century BC C.Ashurnasirpal II reigned from 884 to 859 on a. C. He built the city of Calah and made it his capital, replacing the ancient Assur.

The archeology of this city has a real treasure in inscriptions found on monuments, the history of this king. It is known among other things that military campaigns were numerous, devastating and brutal.

In the eighth century C. there is a burgeoning military empire thatlasted two centuries. In this historical period were tributary to Assyria, Phoenicians, Israelites, and many towns of the Medes and Persians. The Assyrians came to Egypt in its expansion to the west and Persia to the east. It is a golden age when kings lived in great luxury, exercising a despotic government.

During those years he governed the dynasty of Sargon, whose first king was Sargon IIwho moved his entourage to a new city called Dur Sharrukin (Fort Sargon). The cities were embellished with magnificent monuments at the expense of large taxes levied on subject peoples.
King Esarhaddon reigned in the early seventh century C. He came to Egypt and took the capital, Memphis. His son Ashurbanipal went further, to Thebes and made military campaigns in Susa (Iran). On the death of thisking was an internal revolution. |

Geography

Assyria was in a plain cut by some chains of gray rocks and some undulations.
The climate of the lower part of the region was dry and overwhelming. In the region there was cereal (mainly wheat), there were no trees. In the upper forests growing walnuts, bananas, oaks and sycamores. For three months he had heavy rain and sometimes snow. Withinthe magnificent were soft sandstone quarries, alabaster easy to work and get slabs, and marble. In the mountains of northeastern mines were iron, copper, lead and silver.

History
During the third millennium B. C., the region of Asia Minor came under the influence of the Sumerian civilization established in the southern plain of Mesopotamia. In the investigations carried out following theexcavations of the Syrian city of Assur has been shown that the statues found they had much in common with those found in other Sumerian temples.
This shows the great cultural relationship that undoubtedly existed between the two peoples since ancient times.
By the year 2000 B. C. invaded Mesopotamia (roughly modern Iraq) the people of the Elamites, but later came another nomadic people, theAmorites, who conquered Syria from the south to the Sumerians and north to the Syrians.
We know that a century later Assyrian merchants groups formed colonies in Anatolia (modern central Turkey), and there established a thriving trade in precious metals and textiles.
Old Kingdom or First Assyrian Empire Assyrian
Between 1813 and 1780 a. C., Assyria reached the rank of empire. It was the first Assyrianempire, the king's hand Shamshiadad I until the year 1760 a. C., Hammurabi of Babylon defeated and conquered the Assyrians became part of the empire of Babylon.
Averaging Period Assyrian and half Assyrian Empire
The sixteenth century C. was a period of invasions and great confusion all over Mesopotamia. Assyria was under the control of each other invaders (the Mitanni and the Hittites in...