Palaces of Assyria
Assyrian palaces are some of the largest and most important ancient buildings found
in Mesopotamia. They demonstrate the wealth and achievements of the Assyrian
empire in the first millennium B.C.
“Palace Without a Rival”
At the beginning of the eighth century B.C. King Sennacherib ruled Assyria. He decided to build a palace at Nineveh. He wanted it to be the biggest and most elaborate of all Assyrian palaces. He called it the 'Palace
Without a Rival'.
We know about the building of this palace because Sennacherib left many inscriptions
describing the building of the palace in detail.
"At that time Nineveh, the city
beloved of the goddess Ishtar, had
become too small and badly built. But I
Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, decided to
carry out work according to the will
of the gods."
Sennacherib chose a site for the palace close to the Tebiltu river, but there were already
foundations of an older building there which the river had eroded.
Sennacherib wanted his palace to be built on solid ground so he had the course of
the river changed.
"I forced people from many countries who did not respect me to make bricks. The old palace I
pulled down completely.
The river Tebiltu, which had flowed by the palace and during floods had caused much damage, I changed its course to water farm
land instead."
Sennacherib had a platform built above the river's flood level. The platform was the
base for the palace.
"I made the platform of the old palace larger and higher.
To make sure that the platform was not weakened over time or by flooding, I
surrounded the foundations with great stones."
It was time to build the new palace. Mud-brick, stone, and many precious materials such as cedar wood and ivory were
used.
This piece of carved ivory is decorated
with coloured stones and gold. It was found
at Nimrud and was originally part of a piece of furniture.
"Palaces of gold, silver, bronze, alabaster, ivory, cedar, pine for my royal residence I
constructed.
Beams of cedar and cypress, whose scent is pleasant and which come from the snow-capped Amanus Mountain, I placed there.
Doors of cedar, cypress and pine I covered with silver and copper, and I set them up to frame
the doorways. "
The palace was decorated with huge columns of bronze or cedar. The cedar was brought to
Assyria from forests on the mountains of Lebanon.
Stone reliefs of magical spirits decorated walls in the palace. They protected the king from
evil forces.
Large stone statues of human-headed
winged bulls and lions guarded the
doorways. They were there to magically
protect the king and his palace. Similar
smaller statues also supported columns.
"I Sennacherib, the chief of all princes, who has knowledge of all crafts, made great
pillars of bronze and colossal lions, open at the knees, such as no earlier king had
made.
Colossal bronze bulls covered with gold and colossal alabaster bulls I set up to frame the
doorways. "
Huge slabs of alabaster were brought
from quarries to line the walls of the palace.
They were put in place and carved with
scenes of Sennacherib's army, foreigners bringing
tribute and the palace being built.
"With slabs of alabaster I surrounded the palace walls, I caused them to be a wonder to look at. I called it, 'The Palace without a
Rival'."
When the palace was finished, Sennacherib surrounded it with a great park. He filled the park with many different types of
plants and trees from lands across his
empire.
He divided the land into plots which the citizens of Nineveh could use to plant
orchards.
"I planted a great park beside the palace, like that of the Amanus Mountain, with all
kinds of herbs and fruit trees which came from the mountains and from
Babylonia."
Because there wasn't enough water, a canal was built from
the mountains to the orchards.
"To increase the area for
planting, I dug a canal with pickaxes and directed it
through high and low ground ... using irrigation ditches I led the
water among the orchards."
Finally, Sennacherib invited Ashur and other important Assyrian gods
and goddesses to the city of Nineveh. He offered sacrifices to
them and held a banquet to celebrate
finishing the new palace.