Dur-Sharrukin

an Assyrian city built by King Sargon II between 713 and 707 B.C.; abandoned by the Assyrians most likely in the beginning of the seventh century B.C. Presently Dur-Sharrukin is the site of Khorsabad in Iraq. Excavations in the 1840’s (P. E. Botta, France) and in the 1930’s (G. Loud, USA) established that the city had a rectangular layout and was surrounded by walls with eight fortified gates. The king’s palace (containing about 200 rooms decorated with reliefs portraying the military campaigns of Sargon II and life at court as well as 30 inner courtyards), temples, the palaces of the nobility, and a ziggurat were located inside the citadel built on a high (up to 14 m) artificial platform. Huge sculptures of winged bulls with human heads as well as reliefs portraying the Assyrian epic heroes Gilgamesh and Enkidu (dating from the end of the eighth century B.C.) were also found.