The Luck of Nineveh: In Search of the Lost Assyrian Empire

About this book

Unravels the story of the discovery of Ninevah in spellbinding detail: how Layard an eccentric Englishman fascinated by the Near East set out single-handedly to uncover the fabled Biblical civilization of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. It tells how Layard selected a mound -- in a site that had been unsuccessfully probed for a decade -- put his shovel to the earth and in twenty minutes hit a wall. Within twenty-four hours he had discovered not one but two palaces. The news of Ninevahs discovery electrified Europe and overnight Layard became a celebrity.