Bible Synapse
Nineveh
Site · c. 700–612 BC · Assyria and Babylon · also called Kuyunjik, Nebi Yunus
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- c. 700–612 BC (Nineveh as the capital of Assyria)
- Found
- Nineveh, east bank of the Tigris opposite Mosul, Iraq, 1847. Paul-Émile Botta made trial digs on Kuyunjik in 1842; Austen Henry Layard excavated from 1847, followed by many later British, Iraqi, American, German and Italian teams. During their occupation of 2014–2017 Islamic State fighters blew up the shrine of Jonah and wrecked or damaged several of the gates.
- Now
- At the site (Mosul, Iraq), Mosul
- Passages
- Genesis 10:11, 2 Kings 19:36, Jonah 1:2, Jonah 3:3, Nahum 1:1, Zephaniah 2:13
What it is
The ruins of Assyria’s last capital: two great mounds, Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunus (with the shrine of the prophet Jonah), inside a city wall about 12 km round, with several excavated gates. Sennacherib made Nineveh his capital about 700 BC and built his “Palace without Rival” on Kuyunjik; Ashurbanipal later built the North Palace there. A coalition of Assyria’s former subjects, led by the Babylonians and the Medes, sacked the city in 612 BC.
How it connects to the Bible
After his campaign against Hezekiah, Sennacherib “dwelt at Nineveh” (2 Kings 19:36). The Bible calls it “that great city” in the book of Jonah, and Nahum and Zephaniah foretold its fall. Some of the finds most closely tied to the Bible come from here, including the Lachish reliefs and the prisms of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal.