Photos of the Ancient Assyrian Relief Art of Nimrud Palace

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Photos of the Beautiful Ancient Assyrian Art Relief Panels from Photos of Nimrud Palace – 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 Nimrud Palace

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Photos of the Ancient Assyrian relief sculptures from Nimrud. The Ancient Assyrian city originally known as Kalhu and is located 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the city of Mosul, present day Iraq, in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia.

The gallery of photos contains Ancient Assyrian relief sculpture from the North West Palace of Nimrud or kale dating from 865-860 B.C.

Archaeological excavations at the site began in 1845, and were conducted at intervals between then and 1879, and then from 1949 onwards. Many important pieces were discovered, with most being moved to museums in Iraq and abroad.

Nimrud gained fame when king Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC) made it his capital at the expense of Assur.

He built a large palace and temples in the city, which had fallen into a degree of disrepair during the Bronze Age Collapse of the mid-11th to mid-10th centuries BC.

Thousands of men worked to build an 8-kilometre-long (5 mi) wall surrounding the city and a grand palace. A grand opening ceremony with festivities and an opulent banquet in 879 BC is described in an inscribed stele discovered during archeological excavations.

By 800 BC Nimrud had grown to 75,000 inhabitants making it the largest city in the world