Battles & Wars › Ancient world › Neo-Assyrian Empire
Fall of Nineveh
612 BC· Battle· Middle East & Africa
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
Babylonians, Medes and their allies besieged and sacked Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, ending Assyria as a great power.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
After Babylon broke free under Nabopolassar in 626 BC, the Medes of Iran under Cyaxares joined the attack on Assyria. The Medes sacked the old capital, Assur, in 614 BC, and the two powers then formally allied. In 612 BC they besieged Nineveh, one of the largest cities in the world. After about three months the city fell and was burned; King Sin-shar-ishkun probably died in the sack. A remnant Assyrian court held out at Harran, with Egyptian help, until 609 BC.
Why it matters
The sudden end of the ancient world's mightiest empire split its lands between Babylon and the Medes, setting the stage for Persia's rise.
How we know
The Babylonian Chronicle covering these years, now in the British Museum; burn layers and remains of defenders at Nineveh's Halzi Gate; and the Hebrew prophet Nahum's poem.
Still debated
Whether the attackers flooded the city by diverting rivers, as later writers claimed, and how large a role the Scythians played, are uncertain.
Connections (4)
▸Neo-Assyrian Empire collapsed after the Fall of NinevehWell documented
The connection
Assyria was weakened by civil war after Ashurbanipal's death, around 631–627 BC, and by Babylon's revolt in 626 BC. When Babylonians and Medes sacked Nineveh in 612 BC, the empire lost its capital, its king and its core. A remnant at Harran held out until 609 BC; then Assyria vanished as a state.
When and how
Nineveh, across the Tigris from modern Mosul, Iraq, in 612 BC; final defeat at Harran, southeastern Turkey, in 609 BC.
How we know
The Babylonian Chronicle records each step year by year, and archaeology shows Assyrian cities burned and abandoned.
Debates and open questions
Sources for the end are thin: Assyria's royal annals stop around 640 BC and the Babylonian Chronicle has gaps, so dates such as Ashurbanipal's death are uncertain.
▸Fall of Nineveh opened the way for Achaemenid Persian EmpireMostly agreed
The connection
Nineveh's fall split Assyria's lands between the Medes and the Neo-Babylonian Empire. About sixty years later, Cyrus the Great of Persia overthrew the Medes and then, in 539 BC, took Babylon, inheriting both shares and uniting the Near East again under one ruler.
When and how
Iran and Mesopotamia, 612–539 BC; Cyaxares of the Medes, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, then Cyrus II of Persia.
How sure are we?
The Babylonian Chronicles, the Nabonidus Chronicle on Cyrus' rise, the Cyrus Cylinder, and Herodotus all record the sequence.
Debates and open questions
How powerful and organized the Median 'empire' really was, and so how much Cyrus inherited from it, is debated.
▸Battle of Carchemish finished the work begun with the Fall of NinevehWell documented
The connection
The fall of Nineveh broke Assyria's heartland, but Egypt then moved into Syria to keep a buffer against Babylon. Carchemish settled the question left open in 612 BC: Babylon, not Egypt, would inherit Assyria's empire in the west.
When and how
Nineveh in northern Iraq fell in 612 BC to Medes and Babylonians; Carchemish was fought in 605 BC by the Babylonians against Egypt.
How we know
Both events are recorded in the same series of Babylonian Chronicle tablets, giving a clear year-by-year sequence.
Debates and open questions
How Babylon and the Medes divided Assyria's lands after Nineveh, and whether the Medes helped in the later fighting, is unclear.
▸Fort Shalmaneser: Assyria's royal arsenal at Nimrud was sacked by the victors of the Fall of NinevehWell documented
The connection
When Medes and Babylonians invaded Assyria's heartland, they sacked Nimrud in 614 BC and again in 612 BC, the year Nineveh fell. Fort Shalmaneser was looted and burned. The looters left behind thousands of carved ivories, buried in the collapsed storerooms until excavators found them.
When and how
Nimrud, about 35 km south of Nineveh, 614–612 BC.
How we know
Excavators found thick burn layers and ransacked storerooms dated to the end of the 600s BC, matching the Babylonian Chronicle's account of the war.
Debates and open questions
Which of the two attacks did most of the damage, and exactly who led each assault, is not certain.