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Sargon II
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=== Construction of Dur-Sharrukin === {{Main|Dur-Sharrukin}} [[File:Khorsabad.svg|thumb|Layout of Dur-Sharrukin, including the palace and the arsenal. Other than these structures, the city remains poorly excavated.{{Sfn|Elayi|2017|p=206}}|alt=City plan of Dur-Sharrukin]] The foundations of Dur-Sharrukin ("fortress of Sargon") were laid in 717. Dur-Sharrukin was built between the [[Husur river]] and [[Mount Musri]], near the village of [[Magganabba]], around {{convert|16|km|abbr=off|sigfig=1}} northeast of [[Nineveh]]. The new city could use water from Mount Musri{{Sfn|Elayi|2017|p=202}} but the location otherwise lacked obvious practical or political merit.{{Sfn|Reade|2011|p=118}} In one of his inscriptions, Sargon alluded to fondness for the foothills of Mount Musri: "following the prompting of my heart, I built a city at the foot of Mount Musri, in the plain of Nineveh, and named it Dur-Sharrukin".{{Sfn|Elayi|2017|p=202}} Since no buildings had ever been constructed at the chosen location, previous architecture did not have to be taken into account and he conceived the new city as an "ideal city", its proportions based on mathematical harmony.{{Sfn|Frahm|2017|p=181}} There were various numerical and geometrical correspondences between different aspects of the city{{Sfn|Elayi|2017|p=|pp=205β206}} and Dur-Sharrukin's city walls formed a nearly perfect square.{{Sfn|Frahm|2017|p=181}} [[File:Reconstructed Model of Palace of Sargon at Khosrabad 1905.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|1905 reconstruction of Sargon's palace|alt=Reconstruction of Sargon's palace]] The numerous surviving sources on the construction of the city include inscriptions carved on the walls of its buildings, reliefs depicting the process and over a hundred letters and other documents describing the work. The chief coordinator was [[Tab-shar-Ashur]], Sargon's chief treasurer, but at least twenty-six governors from across the empire were also associated with the construction; Sargon made the project a collaborative effort by the whole empire. Sargon took an active personal interest in the progress and frequently intervened in nearly all aspects of the work, from commenting on architectural details to overseeing material transportation and the recruitment of labor. Sargon's frequent input and efforts to encourage more work is probably the main reason for how the city could be completed so fast and efficiently. Sargon's encouragement was at times lenient, particularly when dealing with grumbling among the workers, but at other times threatening.{{Sfn|Elayi|2017|p=|pp=202β204}} One of his letters to the governor of Nimrud, requesting building materials, reads as follows:{{Sfn|Elayi|2017|p=204}} {{quote|quote=700 bales of straw and 700 bundles of reeds, and each bundle no more than a donkey can carry, must be at hand in Dur-Sharrukin by the first day of [[Kislev]]. Should even one day pass by, you will die.{{Sfn|Elayi|2017|p=204}}}} Dur-Sharrukin reflected Sargon's self-image and how he wished the empire to see him. At about three square kilometers (1.2 square miles), the city was one of the largest in [[Ancient history|antiquity]]. The city's palace, which Sargon called a "palace without rival",{{efn|The same name was later used by Sargon's son Sennacherib for a palace built in Nineveh.{{Sfn|Elayi|2017|p=206}}}} was built on a huge artificial platform on the northern side of the city astride the wall, as was typical of Neo-Assyrian palaces,<ref name="Sasson">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/32013077 |title=Civilizations of the ancient Near East |date=1995 |editor-first1=Jack M. |editor-last1=Sasson |isbn=0-684-19279-9 |location=New York |oclc=32013077}}</ref> and was fortified with a wall of its own. At 100,000 square meters (10 hectares; 25 acres), it was the largest Assyrian palace ever built. The palace itself occupied three quarters of the citadel it was constructed on, while temples and the ziggurat were relegated to a single corner.<ref name="Sasson"/> It was richly decorated with reliefs, statues, glazed bricks and stone ''[[lamassu]]s'' (human-headed bulls). Other prominent structures in the city included temples, a building in the southwest called the arsenal (''ekal mΓ’Ε‘arti''), and a great park, which included exotic plants from throughout the empire. The city's surrounding wall was {{convert|20|m}} high and {{convert|14|m}} thick, reinforced at 15-meter (49 ft) intervals with more than two hundred [[bastion]]s. The internal wall was named Ashur, the external wall [[Ninurta]], the city's seven gates [[Shamash]], [[Adad]], [[Enlil]], [[Anu]], [[Ishtar]], [[Ea (Babylonian god)|Ea]] and [[Belet-ili]] after gods of the [[Mesopotamian pantheon]].{{Sfn|Elayi|2017|p=|pp=205β206}}
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