The Babylonian Story of the Deluge as Told by Assyrian Tablets from
Nineveh.

By E. A. Wallis Budge.


The Discovery of the Tablets at Nineveh by Layard, Rassam and Smith.

In 1845-47 and again in 1849-51 Mr. (later Sir) A. H. Layard carried
out a series of excavations among the ruins of the ancient city of
Nineveh, "that great city, wherein are more than sixteen thousand
persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left;
and also much cattle" (Jonah iv, II). Its ruins lie on the left or
east bank of the Tigris, exactly opposite the town of Al-Mawsil,
or Môsul, which was founded by the Sassanians and marks the site
of Western Nineveh. At first Layard thought that these ruins were
not those of Nineveh, which he placed at Nimrûd, about 20 miles
downstream, but of one of the other cities that were builded by
Asshur (see Gen. x, 11, 12). Thanks, however, to Christian, Roman and
Muhammadan tradition, there is no room for doubt about it, and the
site of Nineveh has always been known. The fortress which the Arabs
built there in the seventh century was known as "Kal'at-Nînawî, i.e.,
"Nineveh Castle," for many centuries, and all the Arab geographers
agree in saying that tile mounds opposite Môsul contain the ruins
of the palaces and walls of Nineveh. And few of them fail to mention
that close by them is "Tall Nabi Yûnis," i.e., the Hill from which the
Prophet Jonah preached repentance to the inhabitants of Nineveh, that
"exceeding great city of three days' journey" (Jonah iii, 3). Local
tradition also declares that the prophet was buried in the Hill,
and his supposed tomb is shown there to this day.