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The war-machine that ruled from Egypt to the Gulf, from Nimrud to Nineveh.

Use the timeline below to navigate through major events and milestones.

Neo-Assyrian Empire · 911-609 BC
Ancient Mesopotamia

The Neo-Assyrian Empire

From their heartland on the Tigris the Assyrian kings built the largest empire the world had yet seen, ruling from Egypt to the Persian Gulf through a professional army, mass deportation, and calculated terror. They raised colossal palaces at Nimrud and Nineveh, gathered the world's first great library — and made so many enemies that their fall, when it came, was total. Slide across the centuries of Assyria's iron age.

883 BC
Neo-Assyrian Empire
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883 BC

Neo-Assyrian Empire
  • Political

    Ashurnasirpal II and Nimrud

    A lamassu, the human-headed winged bull that guarded Assyrian palaces
    Via Wikimedia Commons

    Ashurnasirpal II builds a magnificent new capital at Nimrud and crowns it with palaces lined in carved stone.

10 milestones

Meanwhile

Around 883 BC

Full Chronicle

The Neo-Assyrian Empire

From their heartland on the Tigris the Assyrian kings built the largest empire the world had yet seen, ruling from Egypt to the Persian Gulf through a professional army, mass deportation, and calculated terror. They raised colossal palaces at Nimrud and Nineveh, gathered the world's first great library — and made so many enemies that their fall, when it came, was total. Slide across the centuries of Assyria's iron age.

  1. Neo-Assyrian Empire

    • Ashurnasirpal II and Nimrud

      Ashurnasirpal II builds a magnificent new capital at Nimrud and crowns it with palaces lined in carved stone.

  2. Neo-Assyrian Empire

    • Shalmaneser III at Qarqar

      Shalmaneser III fights a great coalition of western kings at Qarqar and later receives tribute from Jehu of Israel.

  3. Neo-Assyrian Empire

    • Tiglath-Pileser III remakes the empire

      Tiglath-Pileser III builds a standing army, reorganizes conquered lands into provinces, and perfects mass deportation.

  4. Sargonid Dynasty

    • Sargon II and the fall of Samaria

      Sargon II completes the conquest of Israel, deports its people, and builds a vast new capital at Dur-Sharrukin.

  5. Sargonid Dynasty

    • Sennacherib besieges Jerusalem

      Sennacherib storms the fortress of Lachish and shuts up King Hezekiah in Jerusalem 'like a bird in a cage.'

  6. Sargonid Dynasty

    • The destruction of Babylon

      After years of revolt, Sennacherib razes Babylon itself, flooding the holy city and shocking the whole Near East.

  7. Sargonid Dynasty

    • Esarhaddon conquers Egypt

      Esarhaddon invades the Nile and takes Memphis, carrying Assyria to its greatest extent, from Nubia to Iran.

  8. Sargonid Dynasty

    • Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh

      Ashurbanipal, a rare literate king, gathers tens of thousands of tablets into the first great library of the world.

  9. Sargonid Dynasty

    • Civil war and the fall of Elam

      Ashurbanipal crushes his rebel brother in Babylon and then annihilates the ancient kingdom of Elam.

  10. Fall of Assyria

    • The fall of Nineveh

      A coalition of Medes and Babylonians storms Nineveh, and within three years the Assyrian Empire is gone forever.