Dur-Sharrukin
Major Šarrukin (also major Sarginu; Assyrian wall / Country fortress of Sargon, Khorsabad today ) was an Assyrian city, which was 16 km northeast of Nineveh in Iraq today.
History of the City
In the ninth year of the reign of Sargon II took over the old town at the foot of Gebel Magganubka Muzri and met in the year 713/712 BC preparations for the construction of his new royal residence. 712 BC the Assyrians began in the third month Simanu (brick month) with the first excavation, which in the fifth month Abu (which is favorable to start-ups) the inauguration of the foundation with the laying of the Temennu followed.
706 BC was Sargon II after six years of construction, to move into his new palace. When he died two years later, moved his successor Sennacherib the capital not return to the old capital Kalhu (Nimrud ) but to Nineveh in its south-western palace. Nevertheless, the city was destroyed only after the devastation caused by the troops of a Babylonian- Median coalition in 612 BC.
Archaeological findings
The residence was not a city in the conventional sense, but rather a citadel, was nearly square created (1760 m to 1635 m) and covers an area of 3 km ². Major Sarginu was surrounded by a massive wall with 183 towers and seven gates. The length of the walls corresponds exactly four SAR ( 14400 Ellen ), three NER (1800 yards ), U.S. (60 yards ), three tube (18 yards ) and two cubits or converted 16280 Ellen ( 8140 m), the numerical equivalent of the name Sargon.
On a 15 m high terrace of the huge Royal Palace was built, which was even completed in the year 708 BC. In the palace there were numerous social and residential areas, temples and economic wings. The residence was dominated by a seven -stage presumably, 42.6 m high ziggurat. The palace was equipped with bas-reliefs, which showed the campaigns of Sargon and goalkeeper statues. The goalkeepers were mixed creatures, either human -headed bulls or winged hybrid beings. The palace was the largest ever created residence of the Orient. Next to the Royal Palace, the temples (including a Nabu Temple ) and administrative buildings there were also several Prince palaces inside the citadel. Outside the walls there was another palace, and a second, even fortified palace, which was used as a residence and Arsenal.
In the immediate vicinity of the city plant is the mound Tappa Gaura.
History of Research
Paul -Émile Botta believed to have discovered in his 1843 discovery of Nineveh, which had but turned out to be fast to be wrong. Victor Place Félix and Thomas took before 1851-1855 excavations. 1852 sank during a disaster when transporting artefacts to Paris many reliefs in the Shatt al - Arab and were not rediscovered until today. 1928 (up to 1935) were taken from the excavations of the Oriental Institute in Chicago under the direction of archaeologist Henri Frankfort and G. Loud again. Finds from major Sarginu are scattered across half the world and can be found in the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, in Baghdad and Chicago.