Ashur
The city Assyria took its name from, and the god it took the name from — on a bluff above the Tigris, with a dam project still hanging over it.
The Capital They Kept Coming Back To
Assyria is named for this place, and so is its god. Ashur was settled by the middle of the third millennium BC and stayed the religious centre of the empire long after the kings had moved their government north to Nimrud and then Nineveh. They still came back here to be crowned, and to be buried in vaults under the old palace.
What survives is a temple of Ashur, a ziggurat worn down to its core, royal tombs, and a double wall running along the river bluff. UNESCO inscribed the site in 2003 and placed it on the danger list the same year: a dam proposed downstream would put much of it under water, and the project has been revived more than once since.
See the heritage2003Inscribed, and placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger the same year
Before you plan Ashur
The least visitable of Iraq's World Heritage sites, and the one whose future is least settled.
Status
On the List of World Heritage in Danger since the year it was inscribed. Visiting depends on permits and on conditions in Salah al-Din.
Where it is
The west bank of the Tigris near Sharqat, roughly 100 km south of Mosul and 300 from Baghdad. There is no visitor infrastructure on site.
What is there
The temple of Ashur, the eroded core of the ziggurat, the royal tombs, and the city wall along the bluff above the river.
Where the finds went
Much of what the German excavations lifted between 1903 and 1914 is in Berlin. The rest is in Baghdad.
One country, seven thousand years
No single city tells the whole story. Follow the thread onward — through the gallery of destinations, or straight into planning the trip.