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

The Luck of Nineveh: In Search of the Lost Assyrian Empire by Arnold C. Brackman. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780442282608.

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.