Nineveh

Nineveh, the largest city in the world 2,700 years ago, will be resurrected starting October 20, 2017, at the National Museum of Antiquities. This exhibition brings together more than 250 objects and artworks from the Netherlands and abroad.

For the first time since their discovery over 180 years ago, the jewelry, clay tablets, and statues will be reunited. Of particular note are the large reliefs from the city palaces and the reconstruction of a room from King Sennacherib's palace.

Nineveh takes you back to the heyday of the Neo-Assyrian capital in northern Iraq. With over 100,000 inhabitants, it was for a time around 700 BC the largest and most important city in the world. The exhibition also tells the story of the first settlement of the place. You'll also learn all about the adventurous rediscovery of the remains of Nineveh in the nineteenth century. The search for Classical and Biblical Nineveh is also explored. The story concludes with the recent destruction of the ruins.

Nineveh pays special attention to heritage in crisis situations and ways to preserve the past for the future. In addition to life-size computer animations of the ancient city, the exhibition features several reliefs from a palace hall, accurately reconstructed using 3D techniques and projection of the original colors. An international research team (including from Delft University of Technology) used photographs taken before the recent destruction for the reconstruction.