Assyria

Assyria was an ancient kingdom in what is now northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and the northwestern fringes of Iran. It was located between the Niphates Mountains of Armenia on the North and Babylonia on the South, 280 miles long and 150 broad. It had a fertile soil and a population at a high stage of civilisation. Assyrian civilization was centred on the Tigris in Upper Mesopotamia.

The origin and early history of this ancient country is uncertain. From early 2nd millennium BC, Assyria was the centre of a succession of empires. It became a province of Media, which lay to the East, in 606 B.C., and afterwards a satrapy of the Persian empire, and has been under the Turks since 1638, in whose hands certain part of ancient Assyria lies, most of which is now a desert.

Nearby pages
Assyrian, Assyriologist, Assyriology, Astable, Astachal