Nineveh

Nineveh (/ˈnɪnɪvə/ or /ˈnɪnəvə/; Akkadian: Ninua) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in modern-day northern Iraq; it is on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and was the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

It was the largest city in the world for some fifty years until, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria itself, it was sacked by an unusual coalition of former subject peoples, the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians and Cimmerians in 612 BC. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq. The two main tells, or mound-ruins, within the walls are Kouyunjik (Kuyuncuk), the Northern Palace, and Tell Nabī Yūnus.

Name

The English placename Nineveh comes from Latin Ninive and Septuagint Greek Nineyḗ (Νινευή) under influence of the Biblical Hebrew Nīnewēh (נִינְוֶה), itself from the Akkadian Ninua (var. Ninâ) or Old Babylonian Ninuwā. The original meaning of the name is unclear, but may have referred to a patron goddess. The cuneiform for Ninâ is a fish within a house (cf. Aramaic nuna, "fish"). This may have simply intended "Place of Fish" or may have indicated a goddess associated with fish or the river itself, possibly originally of Hurrian origin. The city was later said to be devoted to "the Ishtar of Nineveh" and Nina was one of the Sumerian and Assyrian names of that goddess.

Nineveh (disambiguation)

Nineveh was an ancient Middle Eastern city, founded by the Assyrians; now modern-day Mosul, Iraq.

Nineveh may also refer to: