Ashurbanipal in the world’s largest Zigguart

Chgha Zanbil

It is said that Chogha Zanbil fell into ruin when it was attacked, looted, and heavily damaged by the forces of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.

The drawing of a detail on a stone relief from the palace of Assurbanipal at Niniveh (7th century) which provides a rare glimpse of the ancient representations of Chogha Zanbil. On top is a horned shrine which Inshushinak was believed to ascend to the heavens every night. This drawing was made by the 19th century French artist William Boutcher. The original slab was lost in 1854 when a raft carrying a large number of Assyrian sculptures from Baghdad to Basra was sunk by bandits near Qurna.

source

Ashurbanipal sent his troops against his former prot�g� the King of Elam, who had accepted bribes from the rebellious King of Babylon and given him assistance. The vicissitudes of this long Elamite war, and the plots and revolutions which brought three princes in Succession to the throne in Susa, are wearisome details that have no place here. Suffice it to say that in 639 B.C. the Assyrians won the last battle. The entire land of Elam was devastated and its capitalcity thoroughly plundered. This, incidenta11y, was mere retaliation, for among the spoil were found 'the silver, gold, property and goods of Sumer and Akkad and of the whole of Babylonia, which the former Kings of Elam had carried off in some seven rajds'. The ziqqurat of Susa was destroyed, its sanctuaries violated, its gods taken captive or 'thrown to the winds'. The vanquished Elamites were even chased beyond the grave, and their country symbolically erased from the map:

'The sepulchre of their earlier and later kings who did not fear Assur and Ishtar, my lords, and who had plagued the kings, my fathers, I destroyed, I devastated, I exposed to the sun. Their bones, I carried off to Assyria. I laid restlessness upon their shades. I deprived them of food-offerings and libations of water.

'For a distance of a month and twenty-five days' journey I devasted the provinces of Elam. Salt and sihlu (a prickly plant) I scattered over them . . . The dust of Susa, Madaktu, Haltemash and the rest of their cities I gathered together and took to Assyria . . . The noise of people, the tread of cattle and sheep, the glad shouts of rejoicing, I banished from its fields. Wild asses, gazelles and all kinds of beasts of the plain I caused to lie down among them, as if at home.'