Assyria

major Mesopotamian East Semitic kingdom

In the Middle Bronze Age, Assyria was a city state on the Upper Tigris river, named after its capital, the ancient city of Assur.

An Assyrian winged bull, or lamassu.

The Assyrians were just to the north of their rivals, the Babylonians. All the kingdoms of ancient Mesopotamia used the cuneiform writing system invented by the Sumerians.

Assyrian people change

Assyrians are an ethnic group whose descendants remain in what is today Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, but who have gone to the Caucasus, North America and Western Europe during the past century. Hundreds of thousands more live in Assyrian Diaspora and Iraqi Refugees Communities in Europe, the former Soviet Union, The United States, Australia, New Zealand, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon.

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