 Wikipedia map"The history of the Near East during the first millennium B.C. is dominated by the expansion of the Assyrian state and its rivalry with Babylonia. At its height in the 7th century B.C., the Assyrian empire was the largest and most powerful that the world had ever known. It included all of Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, as well as parts of Anatolia and Iran." (From info card at Chicago's Oriental Museum) |