1.
Lamassu
–
A lamassu is an Assyrian protective deity, often depicted as having a humans head, a body of an ox or a lion, and birds wings. In some writings, it is portrayed to represent a female deity, a less frequently used name is shedu which refers to the male counterpart of a lamassu. The Lammasu or Lumasi represent the zodiacs, parent-stars or constellations, large lamassu figures up to nearly 5 metres high are spectacular showpieces in Assyrian sculpture, where they are the largest figures known to have been made. In art, lamassu were depicted as hybrids, either winged bulls or lions with the head of a human male, the motif of a winged animal with a human head is common to the Near East, first recorded in Ebla around 3000 BCE. The first distinct lamassu motif appeared in Assyria during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser II as a symbol of power, Assyrian sculpture typically placed prominent pairs of lamassu at entrances in palaces, facing the street and also internal courtyards. They were double-aspect figures on corners, in high relief, from the front they appear to stand, and from the side, walk, and in earlier versions have five legs, as is apparent when viewed obliquely. The colossal entrance way figures were often followed by a hero grasping a wriggling lion, also colossal and they also appear on cylinder seals. Several examples left in situ in northern Iraq have been destroyed in the 2010s by ISIS when they occupied the area, the Lammasu or Lumasi represent the zodiacs, parent-stars, or constellations. They are depicted as protective deities because they encompass all life within them, the motif of the Assyrian-winged-man-bull called Aladlammu and Lamassu interchangeably is not the lamassu or alad of Sumerian origin which were depicted with different iconography. These monumental statues were called aladlammû or lamassu which meant protective spirit, in Hittite, the Sumerian form dLAMMA is used both as a name for the so-called tutelary deity, identified in certain later texts with Inara, and a title given to similar protective gods. The lamassu is a celestial being from ancient Mesopotamian religion bearing a head, bulls body, sometimes with the horns and the ears of a bull. It appears frequently in Mesopotamian art, the lamassu and shedu were household protective spirits of the common Babylonian people, becoming associated later as royal protectors, were placed as sentinels at the entrances. The Akkadians associated the god Papsukkal with lamassu and the god Išum with shedu, to protect houses, the lamassu were engraved in clay tablets, which were then buried under the doors threshold. They were often placed as a pair at the entrance of palaces, the ancient Jewish people were influenced by the iconography of Assyrian culture. The prophet Ezekiel wrote about a fantastic being made up of aspects of a human being, a lion, an eagle, later, in the early Christian period, the four Gospels were ascribed to each of these components. When it was depicted in art, this image was called the Tetramorph, the British 10th Army, which operated in Iraq and Iran in 1942-1943, adopted the Lamassu as its insignia. A winged bull with the head of a man appears on the logo of the United States Forces - Iraq. A bull with a head is found among the creatures that make up Aslans army in The Lion, the Witch
Lamassu
–
The Lamassu in
Persepolis
Lamassu
–
Lamassu at the Louvre.
Lamassu
–
Human-headed winged bull, otherwise known as a Šedu from
Khorsabad.
University of Chicago Oriental Institute. Gypsum (?) Neo-Assyrian Period, c. 721-705 BCE
Lamassu
–
British 10th Army insignia
2.
Nineveh Province
–
Nineveh Governorate is a governorate in northern Iraq that contains the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. It was a part of Assyria from the 25th century BC to the 7th century AD, It has an area of 37,323 km2. Its chief city and provincial capital is Mosul, which lies across the Tigris river from the ruins of ancient Nineveh, Tal Afar is the second-biggest city. Before 1976, it was called Mosul Province and included the present-day Dohuk Governorate, a massive offensive to retake the city, dubbed Operation We Are Coming, Nineveh, began in October 2016. Its two cities endured the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and emerged unscathed, in 2004, Mosul and Tal Afar were fierce between US-led Iraqi insurgency. The insurgents moved to Nineveh after the Battle of Fallujah in 2004, after the invasion, the military of the province was led by David Petraeus of the 101st Airborne Division and later by Carter Ham as the multi-national brigade for Iraq. During the American civil head of the office of the Coalition Provisional Authority was a US Foreign Service Officer and former Kurdish refugee to the States. Mustafa administered her nominees on the council and through members of the Kashmoula family. In June 2004, Osama Kashmoula became the governor of the province. He was succeeded as interim Governor by Duraid Kashmoula, who was elected governor in January 2005, in April 2009, Atheel al-Nujaifi, a hardline Arab nationalist and member of Al-Hadba, became governor. While the Kurdish list proposed Hassan al-Allaf, an Arab affiliated with the Islamic Party, an offensive to retake Mosul from ISIL control began in October 2016, with Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers supported by a U. S. -led coalition of 60 nations. Neighboring Iraqi regions are Dohuk Governorate to the north, Erbil Governorate to the east, Saladin Governorate to the south-east, in the west it shares a border with Syria, mostly Al-Hasakah Governorate, and also Deir ez-Zor Governorate in the south. Now Makhmur District is part of Erbil Governorate, aqrah District and the northern part of Al-Shikhan District are parts of Dohuk Governorate. There are significant numbers of Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Turkmens as well as Yazidis both in towns and cities, and in their own villages and regions. There are also numbers of Armenians, Kawliya and Mandeans, Shabaks, in religion, the majority of Arabs are Sunni Muslim while Turkmen are mostly Shiite. Kurds are largely Sunni Muslim, although some follow the native Yarsan religion, Armenians are also exclusively Christian and mostly followers of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Yazidis, Shabaks and Mandeans follow their own beliefs, Shabakism, Yazidism. However, Arab Sunnis form a majority in the province, the main language spoken is Arabic
Nineveh Province
–
Nineveh Province governor
Atheel al-Nujaifi 2014 in the
Yezidian Academy in
Hanover
Nineveh Province
–
Nineveh Governorate (formerly Ninawa Province)
Nineveh Province
–
Districts of Nineveh
3.
Iraq
–
The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
Iraq
–
Cylinder Seal, Old Babylonian Period, c.1800 BCE,
hematite. The king makes an animal offering to
Shamash. This seal was probably made in a workshop at
Sippar.
Iraq
–
Flag
Iraq
–
Victory stele of
Naram-Sin of Akkad
Iraq
–
Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in
Shuruppak, Sumerian tablet, circa 2600 BCE
4.
Mesopotamia
–
In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. The Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In AD226, eastern part of it fell to the Sassanid Persians, division of Mesopotamia between Roman and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος middle and ποταμός river and it is used throughout the Greek Septuagint to translate the Hebrew equivalent Naharaim. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria, the Aramaic term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept. The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is made between Northern or Upper Mesopotamia and Southern or Lower Mesopotamia. Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jazira, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf and includes Kuwait and parts of western Iran. In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation and it is usually used to designate the area until the Muslim conquests, with names like Syria, Jazirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date. It has been argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments, Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000 square kilometres region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, in the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf. In the marshlands to the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times, periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of trade collapse and these trends have continued to the present day in Iraq
Mesopotamia
–
Known world of the Mesopotamian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures from documentary sources
Mesopotamia
–
Map showing the extent of Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
–
One of 18
Statues of Gudea, a ruler around 2090 BC
Mesopotamia
–
One of the
Nimrud ivories shows a lion eating a man. Neo-Assyrian period, 9th to 7th centuries BC.
5.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
6.
Neo-Assyrian Empire
–
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was an Iron Age Mesopotamian empire, in existence between 911 and 612 BC. The Assyrians perfected early techniques of imperial rule, many of which became standard in later empires, the Neo-Assyrian Empire succeeded the Old Assyrian Empire, and the Middle Assyrian Empire of the Late Bronze Age. During this period, Aramaic was also made a language of the empire. Upon the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC, the empire began to due to a brutal. In 616 BC, Cyaxares king of the Medes and Persians made alliances with Nabopolassar ruler of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, Assyria was originally an Akkadian kingdom which evolved in the 25th to 24th centuries BC. The urbanised Akkadian speaking nation of Assyria emerged in the mid 21st century BC, during the 20th century BC, it established colonies in Asia Minor, and under the 20th century BC King Ilushuma, Assyria conducted many successful raids against the states of the south. Ashur-uballit extended Assyrian control over the farming lands of Nineveh. Tiglath-Pileser controlled the caravan routes that crossed the fertile crescent from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Much campaigning by Tiglath-Pileser and succeeding kings was directed against Aramaean pastoralist groups in Syria, by the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the Aramaean expansion had resulted in the loss of much Assyrian territory in Upper Mesopotamia. After the death of Tiglath-Pileser I in 1076 BC, Assyria was in decline for the next 150 years. The period from 1200 BC to 900 BC was an age for the entire Near East, North Africa, Caucasus, Mediterranean and Balkan regions, with great upheavals. Adad-nirari II and his successors campaigned on a basis for part of every year with an exceptionally well-organized army. He subjugated the areas previously under only nominal Assyrian vassalage, conquering and deporting Aramean and Hurrian populations in the north to far-off places. Adadinirari II then twice attacked and defeated Shamash-mudammiq of Babylonia, annexing an area of land north of the Diyala river. He made further gains over Babylonia under Nabu-shuma-ukin I later in his reign and he was succeeded by Tukulti-Ninurta II in 891 BC, who further consolidated Assyrias position and expanded northwards into Asia Minor and the Zagros Mountains during his short reign. The next king, Ashurnasirpal II, embarked on a vast program of expansion, during his rule, Assyria recovered much of the territory that it had lost around 1100 BC at the end of the Middle Assyrian period. Ashurnasirpal II also campaigned in the Zagros Mountains in modern Iran, repressing a revolt against Assyrian rule by the Lullubi, the Assyrians began boasting in their ruthlessness around this time. Ashurnasirpal II also moved his capital to the city of Kalhu, the palaces, temples and other buildings raised by him bear witness to a considerable development of wealth and art
Neo-Assyrian Empire
–
Map of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and its expansions.
Neo-Assyrian Empire
–
An Assyrian winged bull, or
lamassu, from Sargon's palace at
Dur-Sharrukin.
Neo-Assyrian Empire
–
Assyrian warship, a
bireme with pointed bow, 700 BC
7.
Assyrian people
–
Assyrian people, or Syriacs, are an ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East. Some of them self-identify as Chaldeans, or as Arameans and they speak modern Aramaic, whose subdivisions include Northeastern, Central, and Western Neo-Aramaic, as well as another language, dependent on the country of residence. The Assyrians are typically Syriac-speaking Christians who claim descent from Assyria, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, the areas that form the Assyrian homeland are parts of present-day northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria. The majority have migrated to regions of the world, including North America, the Levant, Australia, Europe, Russia. Assyrians are predominantly Christian, mostly adhering to the East and West Syrian liturgical rites of Christianity, whereas the churches of the West Syrian rite, the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church, mostly speak the Central and Western branches. According to a 2013 report by a Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council official, in prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria was home to Neanderthals such as the remains of those which have been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria belonged to the Jarmo culture c.7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, the history of Assyria begins with the formation of the city of Assur perhaps as early as the 25th century BC. The Assyrian king list records kings dating from the 25th century BC onwards, the earliest being Tudiya, who was a contemporary of Ibrium of Ebla. However, many of early kings would have been local rulers. In the traditions of the Assyrian Church of the East, they are descended from Abrahams grandson, however, there is no historical basis for the biblical assertion whatsoever, there is no mention in Assyrian records. The Assyrian people, after the fall of their empire, fell under foreign domination ever since, the Persian Empire was founded, which consumed the entire Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire in 539 BC. Assyrians became front line soldiers for the Persian Empire under Xerxes I, the Assyrian army accounted for three legions of the Roman army, defending the Parthian border. In the 1st century, it was the Assyrian army that enabled Vespasians coup, from the later 2nd century, the Roman Senate included several notable Assyrians, including Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus and Avidius Cassius. From the 1st century BC, Assyria was the theatre of the protracted Roman–Persian Wars and it would become a Roman province from 116 to 363 AD. Despite the influx of foreign elements, the presence of Assyrians is confirmed by the worship of the god Ashur, the Greeks, Parthians, and Romans had a rather low-level of integration with the local population in Mesopotamia, which allowed their cultures to survive. The Assyrians were Christianized in the first to third centuries in Roman Syria, the population of the Sasanian province of Asōristān was a mixed one, composed of Assyrians, Arameans in the far south and the western deserts, and Persians. The Greek element in the cities, still strong during the Parthian Empire, the majority of the population were Eastern Aramaic speakers. Along with the Arameans, Armenians, Greeks, and Nabataeans, the Council of Seleucia of ca.325 dealt with jurisdictional conflicts among the leading bishops
Assyrian people
–
The burning of bodies of Assyrian women
Assyrian people
Assyrian people
–
Assyrian refugees on a wagon moving to a newly constructed village on the
Khabur river in Syria.
Assyrian people
–
Celebration at a Syriac Orthodox monastery in
Mosul,
Ottoman Syria, early 20th century.
8.
Edward Chiera
–
Edward Chiera was an Italian-American archaeologist, Assyriologist, and scholar of religions and linguistics. Born in Rome, Italy, in 1885, Chiera trained as a theologian at the Crozer Theological Seminary and he completed his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania. He was faculty of the University of Pennsylvania until 1927, at time he joined the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Chiera was Annual Professor of the American Schools of Oriental Research at Baghdad in 1924 –1925, at that time he conducted archaeological excavations in ancient Nuzi, near Kirkuk, Iraq, at the invitation of Gertrude Bell and sponsored by the Iraq Museum. His discovery and deciphering of the Nuzi Tablets was an important archaeological result and he was a close associate of the director and founder of the Oriental Institute, James Henry Breasted. Chiera also acted as a curator of the Museum of the Oriental Institute, Chiera led Oriental Institute excavations at Khorsabad, near Mosul, Iraq in 1928 -1929, again with great success. The site of the ancient palace of King Sargon II was excavated, valuable works of Assyrian art were recovered, including a colossal Lamassu which had guarded the entrance to the palace. He continued as Field Director of ASOR in 1931, in a joint expedition of ASOR and he was instrumental in the development of plans for the ASOR, for the Iraq Museum, and in the careers of other noted archaeologists. Edward Chiera, Joint Expedition with the Iraq Museum at Nuzi, Edward Chiera, They Wrote on Clay, The Babylonian Tablets Speak Today. Speiser, Edward Chiera, Journal of the American Oriental Society, LIII, pp. 308–309 In Memoriam, Edward Chiera, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No
Edward Chiera
–
Edward Chiera, from a 1924 passport application.
Edward Chiera
–
Edward Chiera at Oriental Institute, Chicago, 1931.
9.
Arabic language
–
Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
Arabic language
–
The Galland Manuscript of
One Thousand and One Nights, 14th century
Arabic language
–
al-ʿArabiyyah in written Arabic (
Naskh script)
Arabic language
–
Bilingual traffic sign in
Qatar.
Arabic language
–
Examples of how the Arabic root and form system works.
10.
Assyria
–
Assyria was a major Mesopotamian East Semitic-speaking kingdom and empire of the ancient Near East and the Levant. Centered on the Tigris in Upper Mesopotamia, the Assyrians came to rule powerful empires at several times. Assyria is named after its capital, the ancient city of Aššur. In the 25th and 24th centuries BC, Assyrian kings were pastoral leaders, Assyria can also refer to the geographic region or heartland where Assyria, its empires and the Assyrian people were centered. The indigenous modern Eastern Aramaic-speaking Assyrian Christian ethnic minority in northern Iraq, north east Syria, southeast Turkey, in prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria was home to a Neanderthal culture such as has been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria were the Jarmo culture c.7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, during the 3rd millennium BC, a very intimate cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians throughout Mesopotamia, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian, and vice versa, is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium BC as a sprachbund and it is highly likely that the city was named in honour of its patron Assyrian god with the same name. The city of Aššur, together with a number of other Assyrian cities, however it is likely that they were initially Sumerian-dominated administrative centres. In the late 26th century BC, Eannatum of Lagash, then the dominant Sumerian ruler in Mesopotamia, similarly, in c. the early 25th century BC, Lugal-Anne-Mundu the king of the Sumerian state of Adab lists Subartu as paying tribute to him. Of the early history of the kingdom of Assyria, little is known, in the Assyrian King List, the earliest king recorded was Tudiya. According to Georges Roux he would have lived in the mid 25th century BC, Tudiya was succeeded on the list by Adamu, the first known reference to the Semitic name Adam and then a further thirteen rulers. The earliest kings, such as Tudiya, who are recorded as kings who lived in tents, were independent semi-nomadic pastoralist rulers and these kings at some point became fully urbanised and founded the city state of Ashur in the mid 21st century BC. During the Akkadian Empire, the Assyrians, like all the Mesopotamian Semites, became subject to the dynasty of the city state of Akkad, the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon the Great claimed to encompass the surrounding four quarters. Assyrian rulers were subject to Sargon and his successors, and the city of Ashur became an administrative center of the Empire. On those tablets, Assyrian traders in Burushanda implored the help of their ruler, Sargon the Great, the name Hatti itself even appears in later accounts of his grandson, Naram-Sin, campaigning in Anatolia. Assyrian and Akkadian traders spread the use of writing in the form of the Mesopotamian cuneiform script to Asia Minor, the Akkadian Empire was destroyed by economic decline and internal civil war, followed by attacks from barbarian Gutian people in 2154 BC. The rulers of Assyria during the period between c.2154 BC and 2112 BC once again fully independent, as the Gutians are only known to have administered southern Mesopotamia
Assyria
–
Letter sent by the high-priest Lu'enna to the king of
Lagash (maybe
Urukagina), informing him of his son's death in combat, c. 2400 BC, found in
Girsu.
Assyria
–
Overview map of the Ancient Near East in the 15th century BC (Middle Assyrian period), showing the core territory of Assyria with its two major cities
Assur and
Nineveh wedged between
Babylonia downstream (to the south-east) and the states of
Mitanni and
Hatti upstream (to the north-west).
Assyria
–
Assyrian attack on a town with archers and a wheeled battering ram, 865–860 BC
Assyria
–
Jehu, king of
Israel, bows before Shalmaneser III of Assyria, 825 BC
11.
Sargon II of Assyria
–
Sargon II was an Assyrian king. A son of Tiglath-Pileser III, he came to power relatively late in life, the Neo-Assyrian pronunciation of the name was presumably /sargi, n/ or /sarga, n/, the spelling Sargon is based on the Biblical form of the name, mentioned in Isaiah 20,1. The regnal number is modern, applied for disambiguation from the Old Assyrian king Sargon I, Sargon II was a son of Tiglath-Pileser III and appears to have seized the throne from his brother, Shalmaneser V in a violent coup. Sargon was already middle-aged when he came to the throne, and was assisted by his son, Sargons brother, Sinahusur, served as his grand vizier. Sargon was beset with rebellions by the beginning of his rule. Marduk-apla-iddina II, a chieftain of the Chaldean tribes in the marshes of the south, in 720 BC, Sargon and Marduk-apla-iddina met in battle on the plains east of Babylon. The Elamite troops were able to back the Assyrian army, and he retained control of the south. In 717 BC, the Syro-Hittite city of Carchemish on the Upper Euphrates rebelled, Carchemish was a small kingdom situated at an important Euphrates crossing. Sargon violated existing treaties in attacking the city, but with the wealth seized was able to continue to fund his army. In 716 BC he moved against the Mannaeans, where the ruler Aza, Sargon took the capital Izirtu, and stationed troops in Parsuash and Kar-Nergal. He built new bases in Media as well, the one being Harhar which he renamed Kar-Sharrukin. In 715 BC, others were to follow, Kar-Nabu, Kar-Sin and Kar-Ishtar — all named after Babylonian gods, the eighth campaign of Sargon against Urartu in 714 BC is well known from a letter from Sargon to the god Ashur and the bas-reliefs in the palace of Dur-Sharrukin. The reliefs show the difficulties of the terrain, the war-chariots had to be dismantled and carried by soldiers, the campaign was probably motivated by the fact that the Urartians had been weakened by incursions of the Cimmerians, a nomadic steppe tribe. One Urartian army had completely annihilated, and the general Qaqqadanu taken prisoner. After reaching Lake Urmia, he turned east and entered Zikirtu, the battle is described as the usual carnage, but King Rusas managed to escape. The horses of his chariot had been killed by Assyrian spears, forcing him to ride a mare in order to get away, Sargon plundered the fertile lands at the southern and western shore of Lake Urmia, felling orchards and burning the harvest. In the royal resort of Ulhu, the wine-cellar of the Urartian kings was plundered, Sargon claims to have destroyed 430 empty villages. After reaching Lake Van, Sargon left Urartu via Uaiaish, in Hubushkia he received the tribute of the Nairi lands
Sargon II of Assyria
–
Sargon II and dignitary
Sargon II of Assyria
–
The Inscription of Sargon II at Tang-i Var pass near the village of Tang-i Var, Hawraman, Zagros
Sargon II of Assyria
–
Human-headed winged bull, found during
Botta's excavation.
Sargon II of Assyria
–
A
lamassu from the palace of Sargon II at
Dur-Sharrukin.
12.
Mosul
–
Mosul is a major city in northern Iraq. Since October 2016 it has been the site of an operation led by the Iraqi Government, under Haider al-Abadi, in an effort to dislodge. The city has been under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant since June 2014, and no westerner has entered the city until the latest initiative. The Battle of Mosul, an offensive to retake the city begun in October 2016, is the largest deployment of Iraqi forces since the 2003 invasion by U. S. Located some 400 km north of Baghdad, Mosul stands on the west bank of the Tigris, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank. The metropolitan area has grown to encompass substantial areas on both the Left Bank and the Right Bank, as the two banks are described by the locals compared to the direction of Tigris. Mosuls population grew rapidly around the turn of the millennium and by 2004 was estimated to be 1,846,500, an estimated half million people fled Mosul in the second half of 2014 when the IS fought with government forces for control of the city. On November 17,2014, ISIS attacked the city of Mosul, ultimately killing seven civilians, while some residents returned, more fled in 2015 as fighting and violence increased, and US bombings pounded the city. Historically, important products of the area include Mosul marble and oil, the city of Mosul is home to the University of Mosul and its renowned Medical College, which together was one of the largest educational and research centers in Iraq and the Middle East. The University has since been closed, the Islamic States leadership in Mosul has kept the Medical College open but it is reported to be barely functional. The name of the city is first mentioned by Xenophon in his expeditionary logs in Achaemenid Assyria of 401 BC, there, he notes a small Assyrian town of Mépsila on the Tigris somewhere about where modern Mosul is today. Be that as it may, the name Mepsila is doubtless the root for the modern name, in its current Arabic form and spelling, the term Mosul, or rather Mawsil, stands for the linking point – or loosely, the Junction City, in Arabic. Mosul should not be confused with the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh and this area is known today as the town of Nebi Yunus and is now populated largely by Kurds. It is the only neighborhood in Mosul. The site contains the tomb of the Biblical Jonah, as he lived and died in the capital of ancient Assyria. Today, this area has been absorbed into the Mosul metropolitan area. The indigenous Assyrians still refer to the city of Mosul as Nineveh. The ancient Nineveh was succeeded by Mepsila after the fall of Assyria between 612-599 BC at the hands of a coalition of Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Scythians, Cimmerians and Sagartians, the Assyrians largely abandoned the city, building new smaller settlements such as Mepsila nearby
Mosul
–
Tigris River and bridge in Mosul
Mosul
–
St. Elijah's Monastery south of Mosul, Iraq's oldest Christian monastery, dating from the 6th century
Mosul
–
Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, "Siege of Mosul in 1261–
63 ",
Jami' al-tawarikh, Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Mosul
–
A coffee house in Mosul, 1914.
13.
Nineveh
–
Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located on the outskirts of Mosul in modern-day northern Iraq. It is on the bank of the Tigris River, and was the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. It is also a name for the half of Mosul which lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris in the modern day. Its ruins are across the river from the major city of Mosul. The two main tells, or mound-ruins, within the walls are Kouyunjik, the Northern Palace, large amounts of Assyrian sculpture and other artifacts have been excavated and are now located in museums around the world. Site remains suffered in the 2010s from the occupation of the area by ISIS, Iraqi forces recaptured the area in January 2017. The English placename Nineveh comes from Latin Ninive and Septuagint Greek Nineuḗ under influence of the Biblical Hebrew Nīnewēh, the original meaning of the name is unclear but may have referred to a patron goddess. The cuneiform for Ninâ is a fish within a house and this may have simply intended Place of Fish or may have indicated a goddess associated with fish or the Tigris, possibly originally of Hurrian origin. The city was said to be devoted to the Ishtar of Nineveh. The city was known as Ninii or Ni in Ancient Egyptian, Ninuwa in Mari, Ninawa in Aramaic, ܢܸܢܘܵܐ in Syriac. Nabī Yūnus is the Arabic for Prophet Jonah, Kouyunjik was, according to Layard, a Turkish name, and it was known as Armousheeah by the Arabs, and is thought to have some connection with the Kara Koyunlu dynasty. This whole extensive space is now one immense area of ruins overlaid in parts by new suburbs of the city of Mosul, Nineveh was one of the oldest and greatest cities in antiquity. The area was settled as early as 6000 BC and, by 3000 BC, had become an important religious center for the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, the early city was constructed on a fault line and, consequently, suffered damage from a number of earthquakes. One such event destroyed the first temple of Ishtar, which was rebuilt in 2260 BC by the Akkadian king Manishtushu. Texts from the Hellenistic period later offered an eponymous Ninus as the founder of Nineveh, the regional influence of Nineveh became particularly pronounced during the archaeological period known as Ninevite 5, or Ninevite V. This period is defined primarily by the pottery that is found widely throughout northern Mesopotamia. Also, for the northern Mesopotamian region, the Early Jezirah chronology has been developed by archaeologists, according to this regional chronology, Ninevite 5 is equivalent to the Early Jezirah I–II period. Ninevite 5 was preceded by the Late Uruk period, Ninevite 5 pottery is roughly contemporary to the Early Transcaucasian culture ware, and the Jemdet Nasr ware
Nineveh
–
The reconstructed Mashki Gate of Nineveh
Nineveh
–
Refined low-relief section of a bull-hunt frieze from Nineveh,
alabaster, c. 695 BC (
Pergamon Museum), Berlin.
Nineveh
–
The king hunting lion from the North Palace, Nineveh seen at the
British Museum
Nineveh
–
Bronze lion from Nineveh.
14.
Louvre
–
The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
Louvre
–
the Richelieu wing (2005)
Louvre
–
The only portion of the medieval Louvre still visible
Louvre
–
Antonio Canova 's
Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss was commissioned in 1787, donated in 1824.
Louvre
–
The
Venus de Milo was added to the Louvre's collection during the reign of
Louis XVIII.
15.
Phoenicia
–
The enterprising, sea-based Phoenician civilization spread across the Mediterranean between 1500 BC and 300 BC. Their civilization was organized in city-states, similar to those of Ancient Greece, perhaps the most notable of which were Tyre, Sidon, Arvad, Berytus and Carthage. Each city-state was an independent unit, and it is uncertain to what extent the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single nationality. In terms of archaeology, language, lifestyle, and religion there was little to set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other Semitic Canaanites. The Phoenicians were the first state-level society to make use of alphabets. By their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of the alphabet to Anatolia, North Africa, and Europe, where it was adopted by the Greeks, the name Phoenicians, like Latin Poenī, comes from Greek Φοίνικες. The word φοῖνιξ phoînix meant variably Phoenician person, Tyrian purple, the word may be derived from φοινός phoinós blood red, itself possibly related to φόνος phónos murder. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the ethnonym, the oldest attested form of the word in Greek may be the Mycenaean po-ni-ki-jo, po-ni-ki, possibly borrowed from Ancient Egyptian fnḫw Asiatics, Semites, although this derivation is disputed. The folk-etymological association of Φοινίκη with φοῖνιξ mirrors that in Akkadian which tied kinaḫni, the land was natively known as knʿn and its people as the knʿny. In the Amarna tablets of the 14th century BC, people from the region called themselves Kenaani or Kinaani, the ethnonym survived in North Africa until the 4th century AD. Herodotus account refers to the myths of Io and Europa, according to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel. The Greek historian Strabo believed that the Phoenicians originated from Bahrain, Herodotus also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Bahrain. The people of Tyre in South Lebanon in particular have long maintained Persian Gulf origins, however, there is little evidence of occupation at all in Bahrain during the time when such migration had supposedly taken place. Canaanite culture apparently developed in situ from the earlier Ghassulian chalcolithic culture, Byblos is attested as an archaeological site from the Early Bronze Age. The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically, fernand Braudel remarked in The Perspective of the World that Phoenicia was an early example of a world-economy surrounded by empires. The high point of Phoenician culture and sea power is usually placed c, archaeological evidence consistent with this understanding has been difficult to identify. A unique concentration in Phoenicia of silver hoards dated between 1200 and 800 BC, however, contains hacksilver with lead isotope ratios matching ores in Sardinia and Spain. This metallic evidence agrees with the memory of a western Mediterranean Tarshish that supplied Solomon with silver via Phoenicia
Phoenicia
–
Sarcophagus of Eshmunazor II, Phoenician King of Sidon found near Sidon, in southern Lebanon
Phoenicia
–
Map of Phoenicia and its Mediterranean trade routes
Phoenicia
–
Assyrian warship (probably built by Phoenicians) with two rows of oars, relief from
Nineveh, c. 700 BC
Phoenicia
–
A naval action during the siege of Tyre (350 BC). Drawing by
André Castaigne, 1888–1889.
16.
Olive
–
Olea europeana sylvestris is a subspecies that corresponds to a smaller tree bearing noticeably smaller fruits. The olives fruit, also called the olive, is of agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil. The tree and its fruit give their name to the plant family, which includes species such as lilacs, jasmine, Forsythia. The word derives from Latin ŏlīva a borrowing from the Greek ἐλαία, the oldest attested forms of the Greek words are the Mycenaean
Olive
–
Olive
Olive
–
19th-century illustrations
Olive
–
Storing olives on
Dere Street;
Tacuinum Sanitatis, 14th century,
Olive
–
An olive vat room used for curing.
17.
Sennacherib
–
Sennacherib was the king of Assyria from 705 BCE to 681 BCE. He is principally remembered for his campaigns against Babylon and Judah. He was assassinated in obscure circumstances in 681 BCE, apparently by his eldest son, the primary preoccupation of his reign was the so-called Babylonian problem, the refusal of the Babylonians to accept Assyrian rule, culminating in his destruction of the city in 689 BCE. Further campaigns were carried out in Syria in the mountains east of Assyria, against the kingdoms of Anatolia and his death was welcomed in Babylon as divine punishment for the destruction of that city. He was also a builder, it was under him that Assyrian art reached its peak. Assyria began as a Bronze Age city-state or small kingdom on the middle-Tigris, the empires rise aroused the fear and hatred of its neighbours, notably Babylon, Elam and Egypt, and the many smaller kingdoms of the region such as Judah. Any perceived weakness on the part of Assyria led inevitably to rebellion, solving the so-called Babylonian problem was Sennacheribs primary preoccupation. Sennacheribs grandfather Tiglath-pileser III had made himself king of Babylon, creating a monarchy in which the Babylonians retained a nominal independence. This arrangement was never accepted by local leaders, particularly an important tribal chief named Marduk-apla-iddina. Marduk-apla-iddina paid tribute to Tiglath-pileser, but when Tiglath-pilesers successor Shalmaneser V was overthrown by Sargon II he seized the opportunity to crown himself king of Babylon, the next thirty years saw a repeating pattern of Assyrian reconquest and renewed rebellion. His relations, instead, were military, and culminated in his complete destruction of Babylon in 689 BCE. He destroyed the temples and the images of the gods, except for that of Marduk, the creator-god and divine patron of Babylon and this caused consternation in Assyria itself, where Babylon and its gods were held in high esteem. Sennacherib attempted to justify his actions to his own countrymen through a campaign of religious propaganda, in Babylon itself, Sennachribs answer to the Babylonian problem sparked an intense hatred that would eventually lead to a war for independence and the destruction of Assyria. Sennacherib was probably not the son of Sargon II, but he was groomed for royal succession. Sargon died in battle, and ancient sources give three different years for Sennacheribs first reign-year—705 BCE,704 BCE, and 703 BCE—suggesting that the succession was not smooth, Sennacheribs first campaign began late in 703 BCE against Marduk-apla-iddina, who had once more taken the throne of Babylon. The rebellion was defeated, Marduk-apla-iddina fled, and Babylon was taken, a puppet king named Bel-ibni was placed on the throne and for the next two years Babylon was left in peace. In 701 BCE, Sennacherib turned from Babylonia to the part of the empire. Ekron called on Egypt for help but the Egyptians were defeated, Sennacherib then turned on Jerusalem, Hezekiahs capital
Sennacherib
–
Sennacherib during his Babylonian war, relief from his palace in
Nineveh
Sennacherib
–
Assyrian warriors armed with slings from the palace of Sennacherib, 7th century BCE
Sennacherib
–
View of ancient Nineveh, Description de L'Univers (
Alain Manesson Mallet, 1719).
Sennacherib
–
Limestone stele of king Sennacherib from Nineveh. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul Archeological Museums, Turkey
18.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
–
ISIL gained global prominence in early 2014 when it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Western Iraq offensive, followed by its capture of Mosul and the Sinjar massacre. This group has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, ISIL is widely known for its videos of beheadings of both soldiers and civilians, including journalists and aid workers, and its destruction of cultural heritage sites. The United Nations holds ISIL responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes, ISIL originated as Jamaat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999, which pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda and participated in the Iraqi insurgency following the 2003 invasion of Iraq by Western forces. The group proclaimed itself a caliphate and began referring to itself as Islamic State or IS in June 2014. As a caliphate, it claims religious, political, and military authority over all Muslims worldwide and its adoption of the name Islamic State and its idea of a caliphate have been widely criticised, with the United Nations, various governments, and mainstream Muslim groups rejecting its statehood. As of 2015, ISIL is estimated to have a budget of more than USD$1 billion. In April 2013, having expanded into Syria, the group adopted the name ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fī l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām, while the use of either one or the other acronym has been the subject of debate, the distinction between the two and its relevance has been considered not so great. Of greater relevance is the name Daesh, which is an acronym of ISILs Arabic name al-Dawlah al-Islamīyah fī al-ʻIrāq wa-al-Shām. This name has been used by ISILs Arabic-speaking detractors, although – and to a certain extent because – it is considered derogatory, as it resembles the Arabic words Daes. Within areas under its control, ISIL considers use of the name Daesh punishable by flogging or cutting out the tongue, in late June 2014, the group renamed itself ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah, declaring itself a worldwide caliphate. The name Islamic State and the claim to be a caliphate have been widely rejected, with the UN, various governments. Frances Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said This is a terrorist group, I do not recommend using the term Islamic State because it blurs the lines between Islam, Muslims, and Islamists. The Arabs call it Daesh and I will be calling them the Daesh cutthroats, the group is very sensitive about its name. They will cut your tongue out even if you call them ISIS – you have to say Islamic State, the Islamic State is mocked on social media websites such as Twitter and YouTube, with the use of hashtags, mock recruiting ads, fake news articles and YouTube videos. ISIL is a theocracy, proto-state and a Salafi or Wahhabi group and it follows an extremist interpretation of Islam, promotes religious violence, and regards Muslims who do not agree with its interpretations as infidels or apostates. According to some observers, ISIL emerged from the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and it adheres to global jihadist principles and follows the hard-line ideology of al-Qaeda and many other modern-day jihadist groups. However, other sources trace the roots to Wahhabism. For their guiding principles, the leaders of the Islamic State, are open and clear about their almost exclusive commitment to the Wahhabi movement of Sunni Islam
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
–
A joint US–
Iraqi Army training exercise
near Ramadi in November 2009. The Islamic State of Iraq had declared the city to be its capital.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
–
Flag
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
–
Yazidi refugees and American aid workers on Mount Sinjar in August 2014
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
–
Coalition airstrike on ISIL position, October 2014
19.
Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL
–
Deliberate destruction and theft of cultural heritage has been conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant since 2014 in Iraq, Syria, and to a lesser extent in Libya. The destruction targets various places of worship under ISIL control and ancient historical artifacts, in Iraq, between the fall of Mosul in June 2014 and February 2015, ISIL has plundered and destroyed at least 28 historical religious buildings. Valuable items from buildings were looted in order to smuggle. ISIL uses a unit called the Kataib Taswiyya to select targets for demolition, ISIL justifies the destruction of cultural heritage sites with its extreme following the Salafism which places great importance on establishing tawhid, and eliminating shirk. While it is assumed that the groups actions are mindless acts of vandalism. ISIL views its actions in sites like Palmyra and Nimrud as being in accordance with Islamic tradition, beyond the ideological aspects of the destruction, there are other, more practical, reasons behind ISILs destruction of historic sites. Grabbing the worlds attention is easily done through the destruction of sites, given the extensive media coverage. Despite the images showing extreme destruction, ISIL has also making use of the looted antiquities to finance their activities. In 2014, media reported destruction of multiple, chiefly Shiite, the Tomb of the Girl, reputed to honour a girl who died of a broken heart, was actually believed to be the tomb of medieval scholar Ali ibn al-Athir. In June 2014, ISIL bulldozed the shrine of Fathi al-Kaen, on 24 September 2014, the Al-Arbaeen Mosque in Tikrit, containing forty tombs from the Umar era, was blown up. On 26 February 2015 ISIL blew up the 12th century Khudr Mosque in central Mosul, in Mosul, ISIL also targeted several tombs with shrines built over them. In July 2014, ISIL destroyed one of the tombs of prophet Daniel by implanted explosives, on 24 July 2014, the tomb and mosque of the prophet Jonah was destroyed with explosives. On 27 July, ISIL destroyed the tomb of Prophet Jirjis, on 25 July 2014, the 13th-century shrine of Imam Awn al-Din in Mosul, one of the few structures to have survived the 13th-century Mongol invasion, was destroyed by ISIL. The destruction was carried out with explosive devices, but in some cases bulldozers were used. In March 2015, ISIL reportedly bulldozed to the ground the Hamou al-Qadu Mosque in Mosul, in the same year ISIL ordered the removal of all decorative elements and frescoes from mosques in Mosul, even those containing Quranic verses that mention Allah. They were regarded by ISIL as a form of creativity. At least one imam in Mosul opposing that order was shot to death, ISIL also destroyed Sufi shrines near Tripoli, Libya, in March 2015. The shrines were destroyed by sledgehammers and bulldozers, in June 2015, it was announced that ISIL had blown up the ancient tombs of Mohammed bin Ali and Nizar Abu Bahaaeddine, located close to the ruins of Palmyra
Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL
–
The
Temple of Baalshamin in
Palmyra being blown up by ISIL in July or August 2015.
Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL
–
Prophet Jonah (Nabi Yunus) Mosque in Mosul, pictured in 1999. It was destroyed by ISIS in 2014.
Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL
–
Palace of
Ashurnasirpal II in
Nimrud, pictured in 2007. ISIL reportedly bulldozed the city in March 2015
Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL
–
Temple of Bel in
Palmyra, which was blown up by ISIL in August 2015
20.
Shamash
–
Shamash was the solar deity in ancient Semitic religion, corresponding to the Sumerian god Utu. Shamash was also the god of justice in Babylonia and Assyria, akkadian šamaš Sun is cognate to Syriac, ܫܡܫܐ šemša, Hebrew, שֶׁמֶשׁ šemeš and Arabic, شمس šams. Both in early and in late inscriptions Shamash is designated as the offspring of Nannar, i. e. of the Moon-god, the two chief centres of Sun-worship in Babylonia were Sippar, represented by the mounds at Abu Habba, and Larsa, represented by the modern Senkerah. At both places the chief sanctuary bore the name E-barra the shining house—a direct allusion to the brilliancy of the Sun-god. Of the two temples, that at Sippara was the famous, but temples to Shamash were erected in all large centres – such as Babylon, Ur, Mari, Nippur. Such are Bunene, spoken of as his driver and whose consort is Atgi-makh, Kettu and Mesharu. In the wake of such syncretism Shamash was usually viewed as the Sun-god in general, together with Nannar–Sin and Ishtar, Shamash completes another triad by the side of Anu, Enlil and Ea. The three powers Sin, Shamash and Ishtar symbolized three great forces of nature, the Moon, the Sun, and the force of the earth. The consort of Shamash was known as Aya and she is, however, rarely mentioned in the inscriptions except in combination with Shamash. Another reference to Shamash is the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, when Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to slay Humbaba, each morning they pray and make libation to shamash in the direction of the rising Sun for safe travels. Gilgamesh receives dreams from Shamash, which Enkidu then interprets, and at their battle with Humbaba, Shamash gifted to the hero Gilgamesh three weapons. The attribute most commonly associated with Shamash is justice, just as the Sun disperses darkness, so Shamash brings wrong and injustice to light. Several centuries before Hammurabi, Ur-Engur of the Ur dynasty declared that he rendered decisions according to the just laws of Shamash. It was a consequence of this conception of the Sun-god that he was regarded also as the one who released the sufferer from the grasp of the demons. The sick man, therefore, appeals to Shamash as the god who can be depended upon to help those who are suffering unjustly. This aspect of the Sun-god is vividly brought out in the hymns addressed to him, Shamash was historically associated with the planet Saturn. Morris Jastrow, Jr. identifies Shamash with the planet Saturn, Shamash is frequently associated with the lion, both in mythology and artistic depictions. In the ancient Canaanite religion, a son of Baal Shamash, is known for slaying a lion, in both the manga and animated series Shaman King, Shamash is the god-class spirit of Iron Maiden Jeanne, the leader of the X-Laws
Shamash
–
Male figure (possibly Shamash [
dubious –
discuss] or
Ashur) in an Assyrian
winged Sun emblem (North-West Palace of
Nimrud, 9th century BC; British Museum room B, panel 23). This iconography later gave rise to the Zoroastrian
Faravahar symbol.
Shamash
–
Shamash (seated), depicted as handing symbols of authority to
Hammurabi (relief on the upper part of the stele of
Hammurabi's code of laws)
Shamash
–
Mesopotamian limestone
cylinder seal and impression: worship of Shamash, (
Louvre)
21.
Sin (mythology)
–
Sin /ˈsiːn/ or Nanna was the god of the moon in the Mesopotamian mythology of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia. Nanna is a Sumerian deity, the son of Enlil and Ninlil, the two chief seats of Nannas/Sins worship were Ur in the south of Mesopotamia and Harran in the north. A moon god by the name was also worshipped in pre-Islamic South Arabia. The original meaning of the name Nanna is unknown, the earliest spelling found in Ur and Uruk is DLAK-32. NA. The name of Ur, spelled LAK-32. UNUGKI=URIM2KI, is derived from the theonym. He was also the father of Ishkur, the pre-classical sign LAK-32 later collapses with ŠEŠ, and the classical Sumerian spelling is DŠEŠ. KI, with the phonetic reading na-an-na. The technical term for the crescent moon could refer to the deity. Later, the name is spelled logographically as DNANNA, the Semitic moon god Suen/Sin is in origin a separate deity from Sumerian Nanna, but from the Akkadian Empire period the two undergo syncretization and are identified. The occasional Assyrian spelling of DNANNA-ar DSuen-e is due to association with Akkadian na-an-na-ru illuminator, lamp, the name of the Assyrian moon god Suen/Sîn is usually spelled as DEN. ZU, or simply with the numeral 30, DXXX. He is commonly designated as En-zu, which means lord of wisdom, during the period that Ur exercised a large measure of supremacy over the Euphrates valley, Sin was naturally regarded as the head of the pantheon. It is to this period that we must trace such designations of Sin as father of the gods, chief of the gods, creator of all things, and the like. The wisdom personified by the moon-god is likewise an expression of the science of astronomy or the practice of astrology and his wife was Ningal, who bore him Utu/Shamash and Inanna/Ishtar. The tendency to centralize the powers of the leads to the establishment of the doctrine of a triad consisting of Sin/Nanna. Sin had a made of lapis lazuli and rode on a winged bull. The bull was one of his symbols, through his father, Enlil, Bull of Heaven, along with the crescent, on cylinder seals, he is represented as an old man with a flowing beard and the crescent symbol. In the astral-theological system he is represented by the number 30 and this number probably refers to the average number of days in a lunar month, as measured between successive new moons. An important Sumerian text tells of the descent of Enlil and Ninlil, pregnant with Nanna/Sin, there, three substitutions are given to allow the ascent of Nanna/Sin. The story shows some similarities to the known as The Descent of Inanna
Sin (mythology)
–
Impression of the
cylinder seal of Ḫašḫamer,
ensi (governor) of Iškun-Sin ca. 2100 BC. The seated figure is probably king
Ur-Nammu, bestowing the governorship on Ḫašḫamer, who is led before him by a lamma (protective goddess). Sin/Nanna himself is indicated in the form of a crescent.
Sin (mythology)
–
Reconstruction of the
Ziggurat of Ur, the main shrine to Nanna, based on the 1939 reconstruction by
Leonard Woolley (Ur Excavations vol. V, fig. 1.4)
22.
Adad
–
Hadad, Adad, Haddad or Iškur was the storm and rain god in the Northwest Semitic and ancient Mesopotamian religions. It was attested in Ebla as Hadda in c.2500 BC, from the Levant, Hadad was introduced to Mesopotamia by the Amorites, where it became known as the Akkadian god Adad. Adad and Iškur are usually written with the logogram dIM, Hadad was also called Pidar, Rapiu, Baal-Zephon, or often simply Baʿal, but this title was also used for other gods. The bull was the animal of Hadad. He appeared bearded, often holding a club and thunderbolt while wearing a bull-horned headdress, Hadad was equated with the Indo-European Nasite Hittite storm-god Teshub, the Egyptian god Set, the Rigvedic god Indra, the Greek god Zeus, the Roman god Jupiter, as Jupiter Dolichenus. In religious texts, Ba‘al/Hadad is the lord of the sky who governs the rain and he is the protector of life and growth to the agricultural people of the region. The absence of Ba‘al causes dry spells, starvation, death, also refers to the mountain of the west wind. The Biblical reference occurs at a time when Yahweh has provided a strong east wind to push back the waters of the Red or Erythrian Sea, so that the sons of Israel might cross over. In the Ugaritic texts El, the god of the pantheon, resides on Mount Lel. That is perhaps the mythical cosmic mountain, the Ba‘al cycle is fragmentary and leaves much unexplained that would have been obvious to a contemporary. In the earliest extant sections there appears to be sort of feud between El and Ba‘al. El makes one of his sons who is called both prince Yamm and judge Nahar king over the gods and changes Yamms name from yw to mdd ’il, El informs Yamm that in order to secure his power, Yamm will have to drive Ba‘al from his throne. In this battle Ba‘al is somehow weakened, but the divine craftsman Kothar-wa-Khasis strikes Yamm with two clubs, Yamm collapses, and Baal finishes the fight. ‘Athtart proclaims Ba‘als victory and salutes Ba‘al/Hadad as lrkb ‘rpt, a phrase applied by editors of modern English Bibles to Yahweh in Psalm 68.4, at ‘Athtarts urging Ba‘al scatters Yamm and proclaims that Yamm is dead and heat is assured. A later passage refers to Ba‘als victory over Lotan, the many-headed sea-dragon, due to gaps in the text it is not known whether Lotan is another name for Yamm or a reference to another similar story. In the Mediterranean area, crops were often threatened by winds, storms, a palace is built for Ba‘al/Hadad with cedars from Mount Lebanon and Sirion and also from silver and from gold. In his new palace Ba‘al hosts a great feast for the other gods, when urged by Kothar-wa-Khasis, Ba’al, somewhat reluctantly, opens a window in his palace and sends forth thunder and lightning. He then invites Mot Death, another son of El, to the feast, the eater of human flesh and blood will not be satisfied with bread and wine
Adad
–
Assyrian soldiers carrying a statue of Adad
23.
Ziqqurat
–
A ziggurat was a massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia and the western Iranian plateau. It had the form of a step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah, the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near Baghdad, Ziggurats were built by the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Akkadians, and Assyrians for local religions. Each ziggurat was part of a complex which included other buildings. The precursors of the ziggurat were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the fourth millennium BCE, the earliest ziggurats began as a platform, the ziggurat was a pyramidal structure with a flat top. Sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside, each step was slightly smaller than the step below it. The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance, kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks. The number of floors ranged from two to seven, according to archaeologist Harriet Crawford, It is usually assumed that the ziggurats supported a shrine, though the only evidence for this comes from Herodotus, and physical evidence is nonexistent. It has also suggested by a number of scholars that this shrine was the scene of the sacred marriage. Herodotus describes the furnishing of the shrine on top of the ziggurat at Babylon, the god Marduk was also said to come and sleep in his shrine. The likelihood of such a shrine ever being found is sadly remote, erosion has usually reduced the surviving ziggurats to a fraction of their original height, but textual evidence may yet provide more facts about the purpose of these shrines. Access to the shrine would have been by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a ramp from base to summit. The Mesopotamian ziggurats were not places for worship or ceremonies. They were believed to be dwelling places for the gods and each city had its own patron god, only priests were permitted on the ziggurat or in the rooms at its base, and it was their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. The priests were very powerful members of Sumerian society, one of the best-preserved ziggurats is Chogha Zanbil in western Iran. The Sialk ziggurat, in Kashan, Iran, is the oldest known ziggurat, Ziggurat designs ranged from simple bases upon which a temple sat, to marvels of mathematics and construction which spanned several terraced stories and were topped with a temple. An example of a simple ziggurat is the White Temple of Uruk, the ziggurat itself is the base on which the White Temple is set. Its purpose is to get the temple closer to the heavens, the Mesopotamians believed that these pyramid temples connected heaven and earth
Ziqqurat
–
The reconstructed facade of the
Neo-Sumerian Great Ziggurat of Ur, near
Nasiriyah,
Iraq
Ziqqurat
–
CAD rendering of
Sialk 's largest ziggurat based on archeological evidence.
24.
Shedu
–
A lamassu is an Assyrian protective deity, often depicted as having a humans head, a body of an ox or a lion, and birds wings. In some writings, it is portrayed to represent a female deity, a less frequently used name is shedu which refers to the male counterpart of a lamassu. The Lammasu or Lumasi represent the zodiacs, parent-stars or constellations, large lamassu figures up to nearly 5 metres high are spectacular showpieces in Assyrian sculpture, where they are the largest figures known to have been made. In art, lamassu were depicted as hybrids, either winged bulls or lions with the head of a human male, the motif of a winged animal with a human head is common to the Near East, first recorded in Ebla around 3000 BCE. The first distinct lamassu motif appeared in Assyria during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser II as a symbol of power, Assyrian sculpture typically placed prominent pairs of lamassu at entrances in palaces, facing the street and also internal courtyards. They were double-aspect figures on corners, in high relief, from the front they appear to stand, and from the side, walk, and in earlier versions have five legs, as is apparent when viewed obliquely. The colossal entrance way figures were often followed by a hero grasping a wriggling lion, also colossal and they also appear on cylinder seals. Several examples left in situ in northern Iraq have been destroyed in the 2010s by ISIS when they occupied the area, the Lammasu or Lumasi represent the zodiacs, parent-stars, or constellations. They are depicted as protective deities because they encompass all life within them, the motif of the Assyrian-winged-man-bull called Aladlammu and Lamassu interchangeably is not the lamassu or alad of Sumerian origin which were depicted with different iconography. These monumental statues were called aladlammû or lamassu which meant protective spirit, in Hittite, the Sumerian form dLAMMA is used both as a name for the so-called tutelary deity, identified in certain later texts with Inara, and a title given to similar protective gods. The lamassu is a celestial being from ancient Mesopotamian religion bearing a head, bulls body, sometimes with the horns and the ears of a bull. It appears frequently in Mesopotamian art, the lamassu and shedu were household protective spirits of the common Babylonian people, becoming associated later as royal protectors, were placed as sentinels at the entrances. The Akkadians associated the god Papsukkal with lamassu and the god Išum with shedu, to protect houses, the lamassu were engraved in clay tablets, which were then buried under the doors threshold. They were often placed as a pair at the entrance of palaces, the ancient Jewish people were influenced by the iconography of Assyrian culture. The prophet Ezekiel wrote about a fantastic being made up of aspects of a human being, a lion, an eagle, later, in the early Christian period, the four Gospels were ascribed to each of these components. When it was depicted in art, this image was called the Tetramorph, the British 10th Army, which operated in Iraq and Iran in 1942-1943, adopted the Lamassu as its insignia. A winged bull with the head of a man appears on the logo of the United States Forces - Iraq. A bull with a head is found among the creatures that make up Aslans army in The Lion, the Witch
Shedu
–
The Lamassu in
Persepolis
Shedu
–
Lamassu at the Louvre.
Shedu
–
Human-headed winged bull, otherwise known as a Šedu from
Khorsabad.
University of Chicago Oriental Institute. Gypsum (?) Neo-Assyrian Period, c. 721-705 BCE
Shedu
–
British 10th Army insignia
25.
Robin Lane Fox
–
Robin James Lane Fox, FRSL is an English classicist, ancient historian and gardening writer known for his works on Alexander the Great. Lane Fox is an Emeritus Fellow of New College, Oxford and Reader in Ancient History, Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at New College from 1977 to 2014, he serves as Garden Master and as Extraordinary Lecturer in Ancient History for both New and Exeter Colleges. He has also taught Greek and Latin literature and early Islamic history and his most recent book in 2015 concerns the patristic author Augustine of Hippo. Lane Fox was educated at Eton College, a public school near Windsor. He studied Literae Humaniores at Magdalen College, Oxford, like his fellow ancient historians Paul Cartledge and Alan Cameron, and philosophers Terence Irwin and John McDowell, he was an undergraduate student of G. E. M. de Ste. Croix. Lane Fox was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford from 1970 to 1973, from 1974 to 1976, he was a lecturer at Worcester College, Oxford. From 1976 to 1977, he was a fellow in classical. In 1977, he was elected a fellow of New College, in 1990, he was appointed Reader in Ancient History within the Faculty of Classics. In 2012, he retired and was appointed an Emeritus Fellow of New College, important influences on his contributions to the study of ancient history include Louis Robert, Peter Brown, E. R. Dodds, Timothy Barnes, E. J. Bickerman, Martin Litchfield West, Walter Burkert, and his long-standing New College colleague W. G. Forrest and he was historical advisor to the film director Oliver Stone for the epic Alexander. His appearance as an extra in cavalry manoeuvres, in addition to his work as a consultant, was publicised at the time of the films release. He wrote and presented Greek Myths, Tales of Travelling Heroes, in the second book, Fox professes himself to be an atheist, although in the last book he expresses much admiration for St. Augustine. Lane Fox is the correspondent of the Financial Times and an outspoken opponent of garden gnomes. Lane Fox is the father of Martha Lane Fox and of Henry Lane Fox, Martha is an entrepreneur and crossbench life peer who co-founded Lastminute. com. Henry is CEO of The Browser website
Robin Lane Fox
–
Robin Lane Fox at Financial Times 125th Anniversary Party, London, in June 2013
26.
Quince
–
The quince is the sole member of the genus Cydonia in the family Rosaceae. It is a deciduous tree that bears a pome fruit, similar in appearance to a pear. Throughout history the cooked fruit has been used as food, but the tree is grown for its attractive pale pink blossoms. The tree grows 5 to 8 metres high and 4 to 6 metres wide, the fruit is 7 to 12 centimetres long and 6 to 9 centimetres across. The immature fruit is green with dense pubescence, most of which rubs off before maturity in late autumn when the fruit changes color to yellow with hard. The leaves are arranged, simple, 6–11 cm long, with an entire margin. The flowers, produced in spring after the leaves, are white or pink,5 cm across, the seeds contain nitriles, which are common in seeds of the rose family. In the stomach, enzymes or stomach acid or both cause some of the nitriles to be hydrolyzed and produce hydrogen cyanide, which is a volatile gas, the seeds are only likely to be toxic if a large quantity is eaten. Four other species included in the genus Cydonia are now treated in separate genera. These are Pseudocydonia sinensis and the three flowering quinces of eastern Asia in the genus Chaenomeles, another unrelated fruit, the bael, is sometimes called the Bengal quince. It should not be confused with its relatives, the Chinese quince, Pseudocydonia sinensis, or the flowering quinces of genus Chaenomeles, the fruit was known to the Akkadians, who called it supurgillu, Arabic سفرجل al safarjal quinces. While quince is a shrub, it may develop fungal diseases in hot weather. Quince leaf blight, caused by fungus Diplocarpon mespili, presents a threat in wet summers, causing severe leaf spotting and early defoliation and it may also affect other Rosaceae plants such as hawthorn and medlar, but is typically less damaging than on quince. Cedar-quince rust, caused by Gymnosporangium clavipes, requires two hosts to complete the lifecycle, one being a cedar and the other a rosacea. Appearing as red excrescence on various parts of the plant, it may affect quinces grown in vicinity of junipers, Quince is a hardy, drought-tolerant shrub which adapts to many soils of low to medium pH. It tolerates both shade and sun, but sunlight is required in order to produce flowers and ensure fruit ripening. It is a tough plant that does not require much maintenance. Quince is cultivated on all continents in warm-temperate and temperate climates and it requires a cooler period of the year, with temperatures under 7 °C, to flower properly
Quince
–
Quince
Quince
–
Quince: botanical illustration
Quince
–
Quince - Cydonia oblonga
Mill.
Quince
–
Quince foliage and ripening fruit
27.
Almond
–
The almond is a species of tree native to the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and North Africa. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree, within the genus Prunus, it is classified with the peach in the subgenus Amygdalus, distinguished from the other subgenera by corrugations on the shell surrounding the seed. The fruit of the almond is a drupe, consisting of a hull and a hard shell with the seed. Shelling almonds refers to removing the shell to reveal the seed, almonds are sold shelled or unshelled. Blanched almonds are shelled almonds that have been treated with hot water to soften the seedcoat, the almond is a deciduous tree, growing 4–10 m in height, with a trunk of up to 30 cm in diameter. The young twigs are green at first, becoming purplish where exposed to sunlight, the leaves are 3–5 inches long, with a serrated margin and a 2.5 cm petiole. The flowers are white to pink, 3–5 cm diameter with five petals, produced singly or in pairs. Almond grows best in Mediterranean climates with warm, dry summers and mild, the optimal temperature for their growth is between 15 and 30 °C and the tree buds have a chilling requirement of 300 to 600 hours below 7.2 °C to break dormancy. Almonds begin bearing an economic crop in the year after planting. Trees reach full bearing five to six years after planting, the fruit matures in the autumn, 7–8 months after flowering. The almond fruit measures 3. 5–6 cm long, in botanical terms, it is not a nut but a drupe. The outer covering or exocarp, fleshy in other members of Prunus such as the plum and cherry, is instead a thick, leathery, grey-green coat, inside the hull is a reticulated, hard, woody shell called the endocarp. Inside the shell is the seed, commonly called a nut. Generally, one seed is present, but occasionally two occur, the almond is native to the Mediterranean climate region of the Middle East, eastward as far as the Yamuna River in India. The wild form of domesticated almond grows in parts of the Levant, the fruit of the wild forms contains the glycoside amygdalin, which becomes transformed into deadly prussic acid after crushing, chewing, or any other injury to the seed. Selection of the type from the many bitter types in the wild marked the beginning of almond domestication. It is unclear as to which wild ancestor of the created the domesticated species. Zohary and Hopf believe that almonds were one of the earliest domesticated fruit trees due to the ability of the grower to raise attractive almonds from seed
Almond
–
Almond
Almond
Almond
–
Green almonds
Almond
–
Unshelled (left) and shelled (right) almonds
28.
Medlar
–
Mespilus germanica, known as the medlar or common medlar, is a large shrub or small tree, and the name of the fruit of this tree. The fruit has been cultivated since Roman times, and is unusual in being available in winter and it is eaten raw and in a range of dishes. When the genus Mespilus is included in the genus Crataegus, the name for this species is Crataegus germanica Kuntze. Despite its Latin name, which means German or Germanic medlar, it is indigenous to southwest Asia and also southeastern Europe, especially the Black Sea coasts of Bulgaria and it may have been cultivated for as long as 3,000 years. The ancient Greek geographer Strabo refers to a μέσπιλον in Geographica, book 16, until recently, Mespilus germanica was the only known species of medlar. However, in 1990, a new species was discovered in North America, Mespilus germanica requires warm summers and mild winters and prefers sunny, dry locations and slightly acidic soil. Under ideal circumstances, the plant grows up to 8 metres tall. Generally, it is shorter and more shrub-like than tree-like, with a lifespan of 30–50 years, the medlar tree is rather short-lived. Its bark is brown with deep vertical cracks forming rectangular plates that tend to lift off. The leaves are green and elliptic, 8–15 centimetres long. The leaves are densely hairy below, and turn red in autumn before falling and it is found across Southern Europe where it is generally rare. It is reported to be naturalized in some woods in Southeast England, the flowers have five broadly ovate white petals. The flowers appear in spring, are hermaphrodite, pollinated by bees. The flower is 6 centimetres wide, the reddish-brown fruit is a pome, 2–3 centimetres diameter, with wide-spreading persistent sepals around a central pit, giving a hollow appearance to the fruit. The medlar was introduced to Greece around 700 BC, and to Rome about 200 BC and it was an important fruit plant during Roman and medieval times. By the 17th and 18th centuries, however, it had been superseded by other fruits, M. germanica pomes are one of the few fruits that become edible in winter, making it an important tree for gardeners who wish to have fruit available all year round. M. germanica plants can be grafted on to the rootstock of another species, for example the pear, quince, or hawthorn, to improve their performance in different soils. Mespilus germanica fruits are hard and acidic, but become edible after being softened, bletted, by frost, once softening begins, the skin rapidly takes on a wrinkled texture and turns dark brown, and the inside reduces to the consistency and flavour reminiscent of apple sauce
Medlar
–
Mespilus germanica
Medlar
–
The flower has long sepals that remain on the fruit
Medlar
–
Bletting begins on one side of the fruit. Bletted flesh is brown; ripe but unbletted flesh is white.
Medlar
–
The
pome fruit with an open pit and long
sepals
29.
Cedrus
–
Cedrus is a genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae. They are native to the mountains of the western Himalayas and the Mediterranean region, occurring at altitudes of 1, 500–3,200 m in the Himalayas and 1, 000–2,200 m in the Mediterranean. Cedrus trees can grow up to 30–40 m tall with spicy-resinous scented wood, thick ridged or square-cracked bark, the shoots are dimorphic, with long shoots, which form the framework of the branches, and short shoots, which carry most of the leaves. The seed cones are barrel-shaped, 6–12 cm long and 3–8 cm broad, green maturing grey-brown, and, as in Abies, disintegrate at maturity to release the winged seeds. The seeds are 10–15 mm long, with a 20–30 mm wing, as in Abies, cone maturation takes one year, with pollination in autumn and the seeds maturing the same time a year later. The pollen cones are ovoid, 3–8 cm long, produced in late summer. Cedars share a similar cone structure with the firs and were traditionally thought to be most closely related to them. L. libani — Lebanon cedar, mountains of Lebanon, western Syria, cedars are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including pine processionary and turnip moth. Cedars are very popular ornamental trees, widely used in horticulture in temperate climates where temperatures do not fall below about −25°C. The Turkish cedar is slightly hardier, to −30°C or just below, extensive mortality of planted specimens can occur in severe winters where temperatures do drop lower. Cedar wood and cedar oil are known to be a repellent to moths. This specific use of cedar is mentioned in The Iliad, referring to the cedar-roofed or lined storage chamber where Priam goes to fetch treasures to be used as ransom. However, the species used for cedar chests and closets in North America is Juniperus virginiana. Cedar is also used to make shoe trees as it can absorb moisture. Many species of trees are suitable for training as bonsai. They work well with many styles, including formal and informal upright, slanting, while some naturalized species of cedar can be found in the Americas, no species is native. Both the Latin word cedrus and the generic name cedrus are derived from Greek κέδρος kédros, ancient Greek and Latin used the same word, kédros and cedrus, respectively, for different species of plants now classified in the genera Cedrus and Juniperus. The name was applied to citron and the word citrus is derived from the same root
Cedrus
–
Cedar
Cedrus
–
Foliage of Atlas Cedar
Cedrus
–
A cedar in Lebanon
Cedrus
–
Glaucous Cedrus atlantica trained as a
Bonsai
30.
Cypress
–
Cypress is the name applied to many plants in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is a conifer of northern temperate regions. Most cypress species are trees, while a few are shrubs, the word cypress is derived from Old French cipres, which was imported from Latin cypressus the latinisation of the Greek κυπάρισσος. Species that are known as cypresses include, The Cupressaceae family also contains 13–16 other genera that do not bear cypress in their common names. Species of cypress with very low potential for causing allergies include, Austrocedrus females and Widdringtonia females
Cypress
–
Monterey cypresses (Cupressus macrocarpa) planted in Melbourne, Australia
Cypress
–
The Lone Cypress on
17-Mile Drive,
Monterey Peninsula,
California.
31.
Nimrud
–
It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1350 BC and 610 BC. The city is located in a strategic position 10 kilometres north of the point that the river Tigris meets its tributary the Great Zab, the city covered an area of 360 hectares. The ruins of the city were found one kilometre of the modern-day Assyrian village of Noomanea in Nineveh Province. This is some 30 kilometres southeast of Mosul, 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, archaeologists believe that the city was given the name Nimrud in modern times after the Biblical Nimrod, a legendary hunting hero. In 2015, the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant announced its intention to destroy the site because of its un-Islamic Assyrian nature, in March 2015, the Iraqi government reported that ISIL had used bulldozers to destroy excavated remains of the city. A video released in the month showed a lamassu statue in the city being attacked by a terrorist with a sledgehammer. Another video posted online by the group in April 2015 showed the site being destroyed by bulldozers, the Assyrian king Shalmaneser I built up Kalhu into a major city during the Middle Assyrian Empire. However, the ancient city of Assur remained the capital of Assyria, psychologist Julian Jaynes believe that the Biblical figure Nimrod was inspired by the deeds of the real king of Assyria Tukulti-Ninurta I, the son of Shalmaneser I, and a powerful conqueror. Others believe the name derived from the Assyrian god Ninurta, who had a cultic centre at Nimrud. The city gained fame when king Ashurnasirpal II of the Neo Assyrian Empire made it his capital at the expense of Assur. He built a palace and temples in the city that had fallen into a degree of disrepair during the Dark Ages of the mid 11th to mid 10th centuries BC. A grand opening ceremony with festivities and an opulent banquet in 879 BC is described in a stele discovered during archeological excavations. The city of king Ashurnasirpal II housed perhaps as many as 100,000 inhabitants, and contained botanic gardens and his son, Shalmaneser III, built the monument known as the Great Ziggurat, and an associated temple. However, in 706 BC Sargon II moved the capital of the empire to Dur Sharrukin, the Nineveh Province in which the ruins of Nimrud lie, is still the major center of Iraqs indigenous Assyrian population to this day. King Ashurnasirpal II, who reigned from 883 to 859 BC, thousands of men worked to build an 8-kilometre-long wall surrounding the city and a grand palace. Beasts of the mountains and of the seas, of limestone and alabaster I fashioned. The inscriptions also described great feasts he had to celebrate his conquests, however his victims were horrified by his conquests
Nimrud
–
A
lamassu at the North West Palace of
Ashurnasirpal II
Nimrud
–
"The Palaces at Nimrud Restored", 1853, imagined by the city's first excavator,
Austen Henry Layard and architectural historian
James Fergusson
Nimrud
–
A
lamassu at the
British Museum
Nimrud
–
A
stele in situ at Nimrud
32.
Paris
–
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
Paris
–
In the 1860s Paris streets and monuments were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, making it literally "The City of Light."
Paris
Paris
–
Gold coins minted by the Parisii (1st century BC)
Paris
–
The
Palais de la Cité and
Sainte-Chapelle, viewed from the Left Bank, from the
Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (month of June) (1410)
33.
Oriental Institute, Chicago
–
The Oriental Institute, established in 1919, is the University of Chicagos interdisciplinary research center for ancient Near Eastern studies, and archaeology museum. It was founded for the university by professor James Henry Breasted with funds donated by John D. Rockefeller and it conducts research on ancient civilizations throughout the Near East, including at its facility, Chicago House, in Luxor, Egypt. The Institute publicly exhibits a collection of artifacts related to ancient civilizations at its on campus building in the Hyde Park. James Henry Breasted built up the collection of the universitys Haskell Oriental Museum, which he oversaw along with his field work, as World War I wound down, he sensed an opportunity to use his influence in the new political climate. He wrote to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and proposed the foundation of what would become the Oriental Institute. Fundamental to the implementation of his plan was a trip through the Middle East. Breasted received a reply from Rockefeller pledging $50,000 over five years for the Oriental Institute, Rockefeller also assured University of Chicago President Harry Pratt Judson that he would pledge another $50,000 to the cause. The University of Chicago contributed additional support, and in May 1919 the Oriental Institute was founded, the Institute is housed in an unusual Art-Deco/Gothic building at the corner of 58th Street and University Avenue, which was designed by the architectural firm Mayers Murray & Phillip. Construction was completed in 1930, and the building was dedicated in 1931, in the 1990s, Tony Wilkinson, founded the Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes based at the institute. Its role is to investigate the Middle East through landscape archaeology, the Museum of the Oriental Institute has artifacts from digs in Egypt, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. The museum has free admission, although visitors are encouraged to donate US $10.00 for adults, the Oriental Institute is a center of active research on the ancient Near East. The buildings upper floors contain classrooms and faculty offices, and its gift shop, in addition to carrying out many digs in the Fertile Crescent, OI scholars have made contributions to the understanding of the origins of human civilization. The term Fertile Crescent was coined by J. H. Breasted, the OI founder, in 2011, among other projects OI scholars completed publication of the 21-volume Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, a basic cultural reference work. The effort was begun in 1921 by J. H. Breasted, Dr. Erica Reiner as editor-in-charge led the research teams for 44 years. She was succeeded by Dr. Martha T. Roth, dean of humanities at the university, similar dictionaries are under way, including the Chicago Hittite Dictionary and one for Demotic. The Institute oversees the work of Chicago House in Luxor, Egypt, the Egyptian facility, established in 1924, performs the Epigraphic Survey, which documents and researches the historical sites in Luxor. It also manages conservation at various sites, a collection comparable to the Institutes treasures could not be assembled today, since Middle Eastern governments no longer allow foreign archeologists to take home half of what they find. This had been the typical arrangement in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when most of the holdings were excavated, until the 1930s, when new antiquities laws were instituted
Oriental Institute, Chicago
–
The
Art-Deco doors of the Oriental Institute, sculpture by
Ulric Ellerhusen
Oriental Institute, Chicago
–
Head of a bull that once guarded the entrance to the Hundred-Column Hall in
Persepolis
Oriental Institute, Chicago
–
A
lamassu from the palace of
Sargon II at
Dur-Sharrukin
34.
Chicago
–
Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
Chicago
–
Clockwise from top:
Downtown Chicago, the
Chicago Theatre, the
'L',
Navy Pier,
Millennium Park, the
Field Museum, and the
Willis Tower.
Chicago
–
Traditional
Potawatomi costume on display at the
Field Museum
Chicago
–
A 1903 painting of Chicago in 1833
Chicago
–
An artist's rendering of the
Great Chicago Fire of 1871
35.
Assyrian art
–
Assyrian sculpture is the sculpture of the ancient Assyrian states, especially the Neo-Assyrian Empire of 911 to 612 BC, which ruled modern Iraq, Syria, and much of Iran. It forms a phase of the art of Mesopotamia, differing in particular because of its greater use of stone. The palace reliefs contain scenes in low relief which glorify the king, showing him at war, hunting, and fulfilling other kingly roles. Other surviving types of art include many cylinder seals, a few rock reliefs, reliefs and statues from temples, bronze relief strips used on large doors, the palace reliefs were fixed to the walls of royal palaces forming continuous strips along the walls of large halls. The style apparently began after about 879 BC, when Ashurnasirpal II moved the capital to Nimrud, thereafter, new royal palaces, of which there was typically one per reign, were extensively decorated in this way for the roughly 250 years until the end of the Assyrian Empire. There was subtle stylistic development, but a large degree of continuity in subjects. Compositions are arranged on slabs, or orthostats, typically about 7 feet high, the sculptures are often accompanied with inscriptions in cuneiform script, explaining the action or giving the name and extravagant titles of the king. Heads and legs are shown in profile, but torsos in a front or three-quarters view, eyes are also largely shown frontally. A full and characteristic set shows the leading up to the siege of Lachish in 701, it is the finest from the reign of Sennacherib, from his palace at Nineveh. Ernst Gombrich observed that none of the many casualties ever come from the Assyrian side, there are many reliefs of minor supernatural beings, called by such terms as winged genie, but the major Assyrian deities are only represented by symbols. The genies often perform a gesture of purification, fertilization or blessing with a bucket and cone, especially on larger figures, details and patterns on areas such as costumes, hair and beards, tree trunks and leaves, and the like are very meticulously carved. Other scenes seem to repeat a figure in a succession of different moments, performing the same action, but these were apparently experiments that remain unusual. The king is shown in narrative scenes, and also as a large standing figure in a few prominent places. Above the tree one of the gods, perhaps Ashur the chief god, leans out of a winged disc. Such scenes are shown elsewhere on the robe of the king, no doubt reflecting embroidery on the costumes. Elsewhere the tree is often attended to by genies, women are relatively rarely shown, and then usually as prisoners or refugees, an exception is a picnic scene showing Ashurbanipal with his queen. The many beardless royal attendants can probably be assumed to be eunuchs, kings are often accompanied by several courtiers, the closest to the king probably often being the appointed heir, who was not necessarily the oldest son. Lamassu were protective deities or spirits, the Assyrian version of the human-headed bull figure that had long figured in Mesopotamian mythology
Assyrian art
–
One of 18
Statues of Gudea, a ruler around 2090 BC
Assyrian art
–
Statue of Ebih-Il, superintendent of
Mari, c. 2400 BC
Assyrian art
–
Cylinder seal with
serpopards, c. 3000 BC,
Uruk
Assyrian art
–
Cast of the
Warka Vase
36.
Assyrian architecture
–
Among the Mesopotamian architectural accomplishments are the development of urban planning, the courtyard house, and ziggurats. No architectural profession existed in Mesopotamia, however, scribes drafted and managed construction for the government, nobility, the Mesopotamians regarded the craft of building as a divine gift taught to men by the gods as listed in me 28. Sumerian masonry was usually mortarless although bitumen was sometimes used, brick styles, which varied greatly over time, are categorized by period. The advantages to plano-convex bricks were the speed of manufacture as well as the surface which held the finishing plaster coat better than a smooth surface from other brick types. Bricks were sun baked to harden them and these types of bricks are much less durable than oven-baked ones so buildings eventually deteriorated. They were periodically destroyed, leveled, and rebuilt on the same spot and this planned structural life cycle gradually raised the level of cities, so that they came to be elevated above the surrounding plain. The resulting mounds are known as tells, and are throughout the ancient Near East. Civic buildings slowed decay by using cones of colored stone, terracotta panels, specially prized were imported building materials such as cedar from Lebanon, diorite from Arabia, and lapis lazuli from India. Mesopotamia is along the border of IRAQ, Babylonian temples are massive structures of crude brick, supported by buttresses, the rain being carried off by drains. One such drain at Ur was made of lead, the use of brick led to the early development of the pilaster and column, and of frescoes and enamelled tiles. The walls were brilliantly colored, and sometimes plated with zinc or gold, painted terra-cotta cones for torches were also embedded in the plaster. As time went on, however, later Assyrian architects began to shake free of Babylonian influence. The walls of Assyrian palaces were lined with sculptured and coloured slabs of stone, in Babylonia, in place of the bas relief, there is greater use of three-dimensional figures in the round – the earliest examples being the statues from Girsu, that are realistic if somewhat clumsy. The paucity of stone in Babylonia made every pebble precious, two seal-cylinders from the age of Sargon of Akkad are among the best examples of their kind. One of the first remarkable specimens of early metallurgy to be discovered by archaeologists is the vase of Entemena. At a later epoch, great excellence was attained in the manufacture of jewellery as earrings. Copper, too, was worked with skill, indeed, it is possible that Babylonia was the home of copper-working. The people were famous at a date for their embroideries
Assyrian architecture
–
A restored
ziggurat in
Iraq
Assyrian architecture
–
An Assyrian winged bull, also known as a
shedu,
Bas-relief c. 713–716 BC
Assyrian architecture
–
Tell Asmar "Standing man" votive sculpture 2750-2600 B.C
Assyrian architecture
–
Geography
37.
Cities of the ancient Near East
–
The earliest cities in history appear in the ancient Near East. The largest cities of the Bronze Age Near East housed several tens of thousands, memphis in the Early Bronze Age with some 30,000 inhabitants was the largest city of the time by far. The KI
Cities of the ancient Near East
–
This article contains
special characters. Without proper
rendering support, you may see
question marks, boxes, or other symbols.
Cities of the ancient Near East
Cities of the ancient Near East
–
Map of Syria in the second millennium BC
Cities of the ancient Near East
–
Settlements of Bronze Age Anatolia, based on Hittite records.
38.
List of megalithic sites
–
This is a list of monoliths organized according to the size of the largest block of stone on the site. A monolith is a stone which has been used to build a structure or monument. In this list at least one colossal stone over ten tons has been moved to create the structure or monument, in most cases the ancient civilizations had little, if any, advanced technology that would help the moving of these monoliths. The most notable exception is that of the ancient Greeks and Romans who had cranes, documented in recent times, there is a list of efforts to move colossal stones that used technology that wasnt more advanced than the technology the ancient civilizations used. Most of these weights are based on estimates by published scholars, however, to help recognize exaggerations, an introductory description shows how to calculate the weight of colossal stones by calculating volume and density. In the cases of the smaller monoliths it may be possible to weigh them, however, in most cases the monoliths were too large or they may have been part of an ancient structure so this method could not be used. The weight of a stone can be calculated by multiplying its volume, the density of most stones is between two and three tons per cubic meter. Basalt weighs about 2.8 to 3.0 tons per meter, granite averages about 2.75 metric tons per cubic meter, limestone,2.7 metric tons per cubic meter. Some softer stones may be lighter than 2 tons per meter, like volcanic tuff. Since the density of most of these stones fluctuates it is necessary to know the source for the stone, the discussion above is accurate as far as it goes, which is only to the first significant figure. To go any further one needs to be relatively sophisticated about surveying the monolith, finally and crucially the rock density needs to be measured with appropriate precision. At the crudest, a device and a bucket can obtain two significant figures for a density value. This list includes only quarried, but not moved monoliths and this list includes only quarried and moved monoliths. Cueva de Menga, in Antequera, Spain, Dolmen made of megaliths, weighing up to 180 tons, built in 2500 BC. Colossal statue of Tlaloc, in Coatlinchan, made of basalt, weighing 168 tons. Pyramid of Khendjer at Saqqara, Egypt, several ashlars,100 to 130 tons, were transported 6 miles. Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, Greece, the Pyramid of Amenemhet III, at Hawara, Egypt. 110-ton, one piece quartzite burial chamber, the largest colossal statue of Ramses, well over 100 tons
List of megalithic sites
–
People on
Nias Island in
Indonesia move
monoliths to a construction site, circa 1915
List of megalithic sites
–
Monolith with
bull,
fox, and
crane in
low relief,
Gobekli Tepe
List of megalithic sites
–
The
Unfinished obelisk of Aswan
List of megalithic sites
–
The 1,250 t heavy
Thunder Stone in Saint Petersburg. On top an equestrian statue of
Peter the Great
39.
International Standard Book Number
–
The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
International Standard Book Number
–
A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an
EAN-13 bar code
40.
Toronto Star
–
The Toronto Star is a Canadian broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. a division of Star Media Group, the Star was first printed on Toronto World presses, and at its formation The World owned a 51% interest in it as a silent partner. That arrangement only lasted for two months, during time it was rumoured that William Findlay Billy Maclean, the Worlds proprietor, was considering selling the Star to the Riordon family. After an extensive fundraising campaign among the Star staff, Maclean agreed to sell his interest to Hocken, the paper did poorly in its first few years. Hocken sold out within the year, and several owners followed in succession until Sir William Mackenzie bought it in 1896 and its new editors, Edmund E. Sheppard and Frederic Nicholls, moved the entire Star operation into the same building used by the magazine Saturday Night. This would continue until Joseph E, holy Joe Atkinson, backed by funds raised by supporters of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, bought the paper. The supporters included Senator George Cox, William Mulock, Peter Charles Larkin, Atkinson was the Stars editor from 1899 until his death in 1948. Its early opposition and criticism of the Nazi regime saw the paper one of the first North American papers to be banned in Germany. He championed many causes that would come to be associated with the welfare state, old age pensions, unemployment insurance. The Government of Canada Digital Collections website describes Atkinson as a radical in the best sense of that term, the Star was unique among North American newspapers in its consistent, ongoing advocacy of the interests of ordinary people. The friendship of Atkinson, the publisher, with Mackenzie King, Atkinson became the controlling shareholder of the Star. The Star was frequently criticized for practising the yellow journalism of its era, for decades, the paper included heavy doses of crime and sensationalism, along with advocating social change. From 1910 to 1973, the Star published a weekend supplement, shortly before his death in 1948, Joseph E. Atkinson transferred ownership of the paper to a charitable organization given the mandate of continuing the papers liberal tradition. In 1949, the Province of Ontario passed the Charitable Gifts Act, barring charitable organizations from owning parts of profit-making businesses. It would continue to supply sponsored content to the CRBCs station CRCT, in 1971, the newspaper was renamed The Toronto Star and moved to a modern office tower at One Yonge Street by Queens Quay. The original Star Building at 80 King Street West was demolished to make room for First Canadian Place, the new building originally housed the papers presses. In 1992, the plant was moved to the Toronto Star Press Centre at the Highway 407 &400 interchange in Vaughan. In September 2002, the logo was changed, and The was dropped from the papers, during the 2003 blackout, the Star printed the paper at a press in Welland, Ontario
Toronto Star
–
The January 23, 2013, front page of The Toronto Star
Toronto Star
–
One Yonge Street – Current head office, built in 1970
Toronto Star
–
The
Old Toronto Star Building, 80 King West in the 1930s
Toronto Star
–
Toronto Star paperboy in
Whitby in 1940
41.
History of gardening
–
Forest gardening, a plant-based food pro-system, is the worlds oldest form of gardening. Forest gardens originated in prehistoric times along jungle-clad river banks and in the wet foothills of monsoon regions, in the gradual process of families improving their immediate environment, useful tree and vine species were identified, protected, and improved while undesirable species were eliminated. Eventually alien species were selected and incorporated into the gardens. The enclosure of outdoor space began in 10,000 BC, though no one knows the specific details of the first garden, historians imagine the first enclosure was a type of barrier for excluding animals and marauders. Garden construction and design was a precursor to landscape architecture. The modern words of garden and yard are descendants of the Old English geard, vitruvius, a Roman author and engineer, wrote the oldest extant design manual in 27 BC. De architectura libri decem addressed design theory, landscape architecture, engineering, water supply, vitruvius asserted that firmitas, utilitas and venustas were the primary objectives of design. Some still consider these elements essential to quality design of landscape, after the emergence of the first civilizations, wealthy persons began to create gardens for purely aesthetic purposes. Another ancient tradition is of Persia, Darius the Great was said to have had a paradise garden, Persian gardens were designed along a central axis of symmetry. Persian influences extended to Helenic Greece after Alexander the Great, C.350 BC there were gardens at the Academy of Athens, and Theophrastus, who wrote on botany, supposedly inherited a garden from Aristotle. Epicurus had a garden where he walked and taught, and he bequeathed it to Hermarchus of Mytilene, alciphron also referenced private gardens in his writing. The most influential ancient gardens in the world were those of Ptolemy in Alexandria, Egypt. Wall paintings in Pompeii, Italy attest to later elaborate development, the wealthiest Romans built extensive villa gardens with water features, including fountains and rivulets, topiary, roses, and shaded arcades. Archeological evidence survives at sites such as Hadrians Villa, Byzantium and Moorish Spain continued horticultural traditions after the 4th century AD and the decline of Rome. In Europe, gardening revived in Languedoc and the Île-de-France in the 13th century, the rediscovery of descriptions of antique Roman villas and gardens led to the creation of a new form of garden, the Italian Renaissance garden in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The Spanish Crown built the first public parks of this era in the 16th century, in the 19th century a welter of historical revivals and Romantic cottage-inspired gardening emerged. In England, William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll were influential proponents of the wild garden, andrew Jackson Downing and Frederick Law Olmsted adapted European forms for North America, especially influencing the design of public parks, campuses and suburban landscapes. Olmsteds influence extended well into the 20th century, the 20th century saw the influence of modernism in the garden, from the articulate clarity of Thomas Church to the bold colors and forms of the Brazilian Roberto Burle Marx
History of gardening
–
The
renaissance style gardens at
Chateau Villandry.
History of gardening
–
Robert Hart 's forest garden in Shropshire, England.
History of gardening
–
The large charbagh (a form of Persian garden divided into four parts) provides the foreground for the classic view of the
Taj Mahal, UNESCO World Heritage Site
History of gardening
–
Rectangular fishpond with ducks and
lotus planted round with date palms and fruit trees, in a fresco from the Tomb of Nebamun, Thebes, 18th Dynasty
42.
Nineveh plains
–
Nineveh Plains is a region in Iraqs Nineveh Governorate to the north and east of the city Mosul, from which it is also known as the Plain of Mosul. It was formerly known as the Plain of Sanjar or Sinjar from its major medieval settlement and it was the location of al-Khwārizmīs determination of a degree during the reign of the caliph al-Mamun. Nineveh Plains lie to the east, northeast of the city of Mosul in the Iraqi Ninawa Province, the ancient city of Nineveh stood where the eastern outskirts of Mosul are today, on the bank of the Tigris river. The villages on the part of the plains are inhabited by minority religious groups that are non-Muslim. Most of these inhabitants are Assyrian Christians, peutingers map of the inhabited world known to the Roman geographers depicts Singara as located west of the Trogoditi. Persi. who inhabited the territory around Mount Sinjar, by the medieval Arabs, most of the plain was reckoned as part of the province of Diyār Rabīʿa, the abode of the Rabīʿa tribe. The plain was the site of the determination of the degree by al-Khwārizmī, Sinjar also boasted a famous Assyrian cathedral in the 8th century. Schools especially received much attention in this area and in Kurdish areas where Assyrian concentrated population lives, in addition, agriculture and medical clinics received financial help from the Assyrian diaspora. As attacks on Christians increased in Basra, Baghdad, Ramadi, more families turned northward to the extended family holdings in the Nineveh Plain. This place of refuge remains underfunded and gravely lacking in infrastructure to aid the ever-increasing internally displaced people population, in February 2010, the attacks against Assyrians in Mosul forced 4,300 Assyrians to flee to the Nineveh plains where there is an Assyrian-majority population. From 2012, it began receiving influxes of Assyrians from Syria owing to the civil war there. In August 2014 nearly all of the inhabitants of the southern regions of the Plains were driven out by the Islamic State of Iraq. There have been calls by some politicians inside and outside Iraq to create a region for Assyrian Christians in this area. The same article has used to proclaim an autonomous province for the Yezidi people. On January 21,2014, the Iraqi government had declared that Nineveh Plains would become a new province, the Nineveh Plains is the only region in Iraq where a plurality of inhabitants follow Syriac Christianity. Before ISIS invaded Nineveh, Assyrians made up around 40% of the population within the plains, other inhabitants are the Yazidis, Shabaks, Turkmens and Kurds. It is believed that this added incentive for absorption by the KRG of the region may lead to conflict with Sunni Arab tribes in the Mosul region itself. Assyrians claim that without Nineveh Plain autonomous administration, the indigenous Assyrian presence in its ancient homeland could well disappear, there are some oil reserves in Nineveh Plains
Nineveh plains
–
Singara in a detail from
Peutinger's map, a medieval copy of a 4th-century
Roman original.
Nineveh plains
–
Map of the three districts which constitute Nineveh plains overlaid over the
Ninawa Governorate map.
43.
Nineveh Governorate
–
Nineveh Governorate is a governorate in northern Iraq that contains the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. It was a part of Assyria from the 25th century BC to the 7th century AD, It has an area of 37,323 km2. Its chief city and provincial capital is Mosul, which lies across the Tigris river from the ruins of ancient Nineveh, Tal Afar is the second-biggest city. Before 1976, it was called Mosul Province and included the present-day Dohuk Governorate, a massive offensive to retake the city, dubbed Operation We Are Coming, Nineveh, began in October 2016. Its two cities endured the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and emerged unscathed, in 2004, Mosul and Tal Afar were fierce between US-led Iraqi insurgency. The insurgents moved to Nineveh after the Battle of Fallujah in 2004, after the invasion, the military of the province was led by David Petraeus of the 101st Airborne Division and later by Carter Ham as the multi-national brigade for Iraq. During the American civil head of the office of the Coalition Provisional Authority was a US Foreign Service Officer and former Kurdish refugee to the States. Mustafa administered her nominees on the council and through members of the Kashmoula family. In June 2004, Osama Kashmoula became the governor of the province. He was succeeded as interim Governor by Duraid Kashmoula, who was elected governor in January 2005, in April 2009, Atheel al-Nujaifi, a hardline Arab nationalist and member of Al-Hadba, became governor. While the Kurdish list proposed Hassan al-Allaf, an Arab affiliated with the Islamic Party, an offensive to retake Mosul from ISIL control began in October 2016, with Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers supported by a U. S. -led coalition of 60 nations. Neighboring Iraqi regions are Dohuk Governorate to the north, Erbil Governorate to the east, Saladin Governorate to the south-east, in the west it shares a border with Syria, mostly Al-Hasakah Governorate, and also Deir ez-Zor Governorate in the south. Now Makhmur District is part of Erbil Governorate, aqrah District and the northern part of Al-Shikhan District are parts of Dohuk Governorate. There are significant numbers of Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Turkmens as well as Yazidis both in towns and cities, and in their own villages and regions. There are also numbers of Armenians, Kawliya and Mandeans, Shabaks, in religion, the majority of Arabs are Sunni Muslim while Turkmen are mostly Shiite. Kurds are largely Sunni Muslim, although some follow the native Yarsan religion, Armenians are also exclusively Christian and mostly followers of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Yazidis, Shabaks and Mandeans follow their own beliefs, Shabakism, Yazidism. However, Arab Sunnis form a majority in the province, the main language spoken is Arabic
Nineveh Governorate
–
Nineveh Province governor
Atheel al-Nujaifi 2014 in the
Yezidian Academy in
Hanover
Nineveh Governorate
–
Nineveh Governorate (formerly Ninawa Province)
Nineveh Governorate
–
Districts of Nineveh
44.
Bakhdida
–
It is connected to the main city of Mosul by two main roads. The first runs through the towns of Bartella and Karamles which connects to the city of Erbil as well, the second, which was gravel until being paved in the 1990s, is direct to Mosul. All of its citizens fled to Iraqi Kurdistan after the ISIS invasion on August 6,2014, the town was under control of ISIS until October 19,2016 when it was liberated as part of the Battle of Mosul. Some also believe that Bakhdida comes from the Aramaic Beth Deta, during the Ottoman period, the Turkish name Qara Qoş, transliterated to English as Qaraqosh or Queragosh, came into use, with Kara Kuş as an alternative spelling based on Modern Turkish orthography. Agriculture was the source of living for the people of Bakhdida. It also prospered on handicrafts such as weaving and producing leather coats which are known as Farawee made of sheepskin. The vast majority of its inhabitants are ethnic Assyrians, more than 70% of whom are members of the Syriac Catholic Church, the main language spoken is the Nineveh Plains variant of Syriac, which is almost identical to that spoken in other major Assyrian towns in the region. Arabic is also used as a second language, English is widely understood by younger generations. As of now, the Al-Hamdaniya Municipality also includes towns of Bartella and Karamlish and it is thought that the ancient city of Rasin mentioned in some texts was in Bakhdida. A variant of the name Bakdedu is said to be the place of a battle between the Assyrians and the Babylonians in 610 BC after the fall of Nineveh. The town then part of the consecutive empires that ruled the region. Persian influence can be seen by the possible explanation of its name. Many gods worshipped before Christianity was established were of Assyrian and Persian origins, the Assyrians of Bakhdida became Christians during early Christianity. Bakhdidas population is indigenous to the village, however, Christians from other regions of Assyria have moved to, many of these Tikriti Christians moved to Baghdeda and later a few Mapharians settled in it as well. Still, the town would be an anthropological study with many rooted family names such as Assu, Ashu, Ballu, Gadju, Hallu, Jadju, Olo, Rammu. In their literature and writings, the Assyrians of Baghdida remember vividly the raids of the Persians and Kurds on their village, in 1171, while the governors of Mosul and Damascus were fighting each other, the Kurds used the opportunity to attack the Mar Mattai monastery. According to the 13th century writer Bar Hebraeus, in 1261 the Kurds came down to Mosul, killing many Christians who refused to follow Islam, the Kurds then occupied the nunnery of Naqortaya and killed many of the nuns and others who had sought refuge there. In 1288 a battle place between the Kurds and Tatars near Baghdida
Bakhdida
–
A view of Bakhdida
Bakhdida
–
"Balawat Gates" displayed at the
British Museum
Bakhdida
–
"Qaṭartā d'Beth īnā" An example of brick constructions in the old centre
Bakhdida
–
1st: Church of Sarkis and Bakos 2nd: Church of Mart Shmony 3rd: Church of Mar Gorgis
45.
Bartella
–
Bartella or Bard Allah is an ethnic Assyrian Christian town that is located in northern Iraq about 21 kilometres east of Mosul. The name Bartella is of Assyrian Eastern Aramaic origin, but its meaning is not fully agreed on by the historians. While Joseph Ghanima and al-Jawaliqy believe it is from Bart Tilla meaning Daughter of Dew, the towns residents mostly fled to the Erbil region following the invasion of the town by ISIS in August 2014. Bartella was liberated from ISIS control on 20 October 2016 by Iraqi Special Operations Forces, in northern Iraq, until the 19th century, the maphrian was the regional head of the Syriac Orthodox Church and reported to the Patriarch in Antioch. When Ignatius Eliaazar made Bartella his home and see in 1153, a compromise was finally reached and he returned to Mar Mattai. However, it was agreed that he would make it a tradition to visit Bartella to emphasize its importance, Bartella gained fame again in 1284 when Maphrian Gregoris bin al-Ebry built the Yohanna bin Najara Monastery. Other maphrians who made their see in Bartella were Dionysius Saliba II, Gregorius Barsuma, Gregorius Mattai I, Gregorius bar Qeenaya, Maphrian Qorlos Joseph III, known as Ibn Nissan, was the last Maphrian who chose Bartilla as his home. He stayed only for a time in Bartilla and then left to Hamas where he died in 1470. Bartella, like other Assyrian towns and villages, faced attacks, plunder and it was destroyed at least three times by the Kurds and the Persians. In 1171, Kurdish marauders attacked Bartella and it was in same year that they attacked Mar Mattai Monastery. The monks realized that the Kurds were going to attack again, therefore, the monks agreed to sign a peace treaty with the Kurds to avoid further bloodshed. They paid the marauders, mostly Kurdish tribal irregulars,30 golden Dinars, despite the treaty, the Kurds gathered a bigger army of 1,500 and attacked the monastery, caused a crack in its wall, entered and killed 15 monks, while the others escaped. In 1201, a confrontation took place between the Assyrian Christians and the Muslim cleric in the town, the towns people complained to the mayor, who punished the Moslem cleric by beating him. The cleric went to Mosul and on the following Friday, he gathered a crowd in the main big mosque. The crowd soon marched toward Bartella to destroy it, however, when they reached the town, its gates were closed and could not enter. They returned angry and on their way, they passed by the church of the Tikritis and they broke the doors, entered and plundered and spoiled everything they found inside and took all valuables in the church. Today, Mar Zena Church, situated in the area near Bab al-Jisir al-Qadeem, has been forcibly converted to the al-Khallal mosque. In 1261 and 1369, Kurds attacked Mar Mattai Monastery, in 1738, the Persian king sent his army under Nargis Khan to Assyria where he destroyed many villages in the Nineveh plain
Bartella
–
Mar Giwargis Church of Bartella
Bartella
–
Church of the Virgin Mary pictured in December 2013
Bartella
–
Mar Giwargis Church (the old one) pictured in December 2013
Bartella
–
Mar Giwargis Church (the new one) pictured in December 2013
46.
Karemlesh
–
Karemlash is an Assyrian town in northern Iraq located less than 18 miles south east of Mosul. It is surrounded by hills that along with it made up the historical Akkadian city of Kar-Mullissi. Residents of the town fled for Iraqi Kurdistan following the invasion of the town by ISIS in August 2014, the town was liberated by Iraqi Security Forces from ISIS rule on October 24,2016 as part of the larger Battle of Mosul. Until the ISIS occupation, there were between 600 and 650 families in Karemlash, the vast majority of the population is ethnically Assyrian and historically part of the Church of the East. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, many members of the Chaldean Catholic Church, but there are also members of the Syriac Orthodox Church. Karemlash is believed to be among the first human settlements, hence, it was visited by almost all Mesopotamian archaeologists searching for the ruins of old Assyria and Babylonia. The first person to excavate in the hills of Karemlash was the Englishman Austen Henry Layard in 1846, many relief sculptures with cuneiform scripts were found in Tel Ghanim and Tel Barbara. On them were found the names of Assyrian Kings of Sargon, the remains of an Assyrian temple were found at Tel Barbara, and the remains of an Assyrian palace were found at Tel Ghanim. Karemlash lost its important stature during the era of Shalmaneser III and his father empowered his other brother, Shamshi-Adad V, the Governor of Kalah. The civil war lasted for four years, from 827 to 824 BC, with the end of the rebellion, however, Karemlashs neighbor Nimrud did not survive the ravages of the war. Karemlash was so impacted by that rebellion that its left and it was given the name of Oro-Karmash. Karemlash is still referred to by its Assyrian neighbors as Karmash, however, Karemlash was reinvigorated during the reigns of Kings Shalmaneser V and Sargon II, who used it as his temporary capital. This great historical battle between the Greek Alexander of Macedonia and the Persian Emperor Darius III ended with the defeat of the latter and the ushering of the Greek reign over the Near East. Karemlash at the time was called Ko-Komle after the death of most of the camels of the Persian Emperor Daryos Dara I around the city due to their exhaustion, hence, historically the Battle of Karamlish is known as the Battle of Ko-Komle. Karemlash was the seat of the Nestorian patriarch Denha II for at least part of his reign, the continuator of the Ecclesiastical History of Bar Hebraeus mentions several contacts between Denha II and the Jacobite church in Karamlish between 1358 and 1364. At this period Karemlash had Jacobite and Armenian communities alongside its Nestorian majority, the prosperity enjoyed by the village during the reign of Denha II presumably came to an end when the patriarchate was relocated to Mosul at an unknown date in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. During the fourteenth century, Karemlash became the center of a principality and it was mentioned in several books as a trade center of immense importance. After occupying Baghdad the same year, he sent a part of his army to occupy Nineveh
Karemlesh
–
View of the southern side of the town.
47.
Bashiqa
–
Bashiqa is a town in the Mosul District of the Ninawa Governorate in northern Iraq. Bashiqas residents are mostly Yazidis and Shabaks, with a minority of Assyrians, Bashiqa is famous for its olive trees, olive oil, and soap. It is also famous for its onion, pickles and arak and it used to be a tourist destination for the locals in Mosul and Iraqis in general. Bashiqa is surrounded by farms of all around the town. The Yazidis in Bashiqa and its twin village Bahzani speak Arabic as their mother language, Bashiqa is officially Iraqi territory but is controlled and claimed by the Kurdistan Regional Government since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. According to Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, a referendum should decide whether it should continue to be managed by the government or the KRG. The status of the city is not fully understood. In the town square of Bashiqa, Dua Khalil Aswad, a woman from the Yazidi community, was stoned to death in 2007 by a large crowd of men in an honor killing. In 2012, car bombs went off in the town, in June 2014, ISIL militia took over the city, and changed the name to Dua city. Yazidi civilians fled the city in 2014, the region has seen fighting between ISIL and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, but was under ISIL control in August 2015. Turkish soldiers were deployed in a mission in the Mosul District in 2015, without authorization of Baghdad. However, Iraq called for help from Turkey when the Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider Al-Abadi, on 7 November 2016, during the Battle of Mosul, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters launched a massive offensive to liberate the town from ISIL control. Peshmerga had surrounded the town for two weeks, there were believed to be 100 to 200 ISIL militants left. Commander Kaka Hama said the Peshmerga descended from three fronts, and that coalition airstrikes played a role in the assault. In the early afternoon, it was reported that Bashiqa was liberated, the name of the town comes from the Assyrian Neo-Aramaic words Bet and Ashiqa, meaning House of lovers
Bashiqa
–
Main settlements
_faces_a_high-ranking_official,_possibly_Sennacherib_his_son_and_crown_prince._710-705_BCE._From_Khorsabad,_Iraq._The_British_Museum,_London.jpg)
