Assyrian Empire

8 CH

northern Iraq's siege specialists

Assyrian Empire2,500 BCE – 609 BCE

The City on the Tigris

Ashur's origins as a modest trading city on the Tigris

~2500-1900 BCE

tin and textiles — Assyrian merchant colonies in Anatolia

~1900-1750 BCE

centuries of foreign domination, brief revivals, and patient survival

~1750-911 BCE

Ashurnasirpal II rebuilds the army and invents terror as policy

~911-745 BCE

Tiglath-Pileser III's reforms create the first true superpower

~745-705 BCE

the siege that failed, the palace that amazed, and a king's murder

~705-681 BCE

Esarhaddon conquers Egypt; Ashurbanipal builds history's first library

~681-627 BCE

coalition, civil war, and the total destruction of Nineveh

~627-609 BCE