The Library of Ashurbanipal
When it was discovered in the 19th century, the Library of Ashurbanipal revealed an ancient Assyrian empire previously known only through myth.
Before the Library of Alexandria there was the Library of Ashurbanipal – an Assyrian king who collected the knowledge of ancient Mesopotamia under one roof. This incredible library was forgotten for millennia, and remains largely unknown even today. Yet it contained an abundance of texts that were influential across the ancient world, and bequeathed a debt to modernity that is rarely acknowledged.
Ashurbanipal assembled his library at Nineveh in the seventh century BC. Today known as Mosul in Iraq, Nineveh was then the most splendid – and largest – city on Earth, and the seat of the Neo-Assyrian empire that spanned from Turkey in the west to Iran in the east. Although it is the Persians who are usually credited with constructing the first world empire, they built on foundations laid by the Assyrians, taking over their system of provinces, network of roads, and imperial ideology.
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