Photos of the Beautiful Ancient Assyrian Art – Dur Sharrukin

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Photos of the Beautiful Ancient Assyrian Art Relief Panels from Dur Sharrukin – Beautiful Photos from the best museums of Europe & the Near East. Photos by Photographer Paul E Williams. (TIP – use the icons below the slideshow for thumbnail photos and info)

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Photos of the Ancient Assyrian Relief Panels from Dur Sharrukin

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Photos of the Ancient Assyrian relief sculpture panels from Dur Sharrukin the palace of Assyrian king Sargon II at Khorsabad, 713-706 BC.

Dur-Sharrukin (Fortress of Sargon), present day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria. Khorsabad is a village in northern Iraq, 15 km northeast of Mosul.

The great city was entirely built in the decade preceding 706 BC. After the unexpected death of Sargon in battle, the capital was shifted 20 km south to Nineveh.

Sargon II ruled from 722 to 705 BC. The town was of rectangular layout and measured 1758.6 by 1635 metres. The enclosed area comprised 3 square kilometres, or 288 hectares.

he length of the walls was 16280 Assyrian units, which according to Sargon himself corresponded to the numerical value of his name. The palace complex was situated on the northern wall of the city.

At the entrance of the palace were a ramp and a large doorway with the god-protector of the city Lamassu on one side. The palace was adorned with sculptures and wall reliefs, and the gates were flanked with winged-bull shedu statues weighing up to 40 tons. Sargon supposedly lost at least one of these winged bulls in the river.