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The history of Assyria is complex, as are most of the histories of the Mesopotamian states and so the answer to this question is not as straight forward as might be expected. The answer is that there were actually four capitals, all at different times. Mesopotamia means, the land between two rivers, these being the Euphrates and the Tigris the boundaries of a fertile and often strongly contested region in ancient times. With the rise of civilization in this region a succession of empires, and city states, rose, merged, were subjugated and fell from history altogether one of these was the Assyrian Empire.

The first Assyrian Empire found its place due to the vacuum left by the fall of the Mitanni, which in turn had thrived because of the fall of the Kingdom of Sumer. The first capital was the city of Assur, from which the empire took its name and legend states that it was built by a group of colonist from the more prominent Kassite city of Babylon to the south. By a strange turn of irony, in1227 BC, the Assyrians through a combination of diplomacy and aggression took the city of Babylon and incorporated it into their empire. The empire was short lived however as by about 1200 BC a wave of migrations and raids caused the fall of the Hittite Empire to the north, resulting in a collapse in central authority, smaller empires ate away at the larger ones and by 1100 BC the Assyrian Empire was left a barely independent shell of its former self.

By 900 BC however Assyrian fortunes were on the rise and through successful military campaigning against its neighbours, had become the dominant force in the region once more and the capital moved to the new site of Nimrud. By the time of one of its greatest kings, Sargon II, who ruled from 721 to 705 BC, the empire stretched from the borders of Nubia (Sudan) throughout the Nile valley of Egypt, the bible lands and north almost into what is today southern Russia. He built his new capital at Dur Sarukin. After his death the capital moved again when his son, Sennacherib moved it to Nineveh. From here on Assyria's story is one of decline and just over 100 years later the Assyrian Empire is incorporated into the Babylonian and Median empires which in turn became the Persian Empire, its glories and achievements to become the stuff of history and myth.

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