Page 36 - Advanced Bible Geography ebook
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wanted to control traffic through narrow Israel. When we read the Bible, therefore, it’s not surprising to
read of Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian and Roman forces inside the Promised Land.
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The Assyrian Empire
Assyria, a kingdom of northern Mesopotamia, became the center of one of the greatest empires of the
ancient Middle East. It was in what is now northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey.
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was an Iron Age Mesopotamian empire, in existence between 911 BC and 609
BC, and became the largest empire of the world up till that time.
The Assyrian empire became extremely great and powerful with Nineveh as its center, all the way until
its final destruction by the Chaldeans and the Medes. Nineveh was in a very desirable place, east of the
Tigris River in a very fertile plain. Today the ancient ruins are located just opposite of the present-day
city of Mosul. The size of Nineveh is revealed in the Bible, in Jonah 3:3 and 4:11 (A 3-days journey in
breadth with over 120,000 people). The classical writers describe Nineveh as being over 60 miles around
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