1. Unit 2:
Chapter 4 Section 2

3. Assyrian Military Machine
850 B.C. Assyria (N Mesopotamia) acquired a large empire.
By 650 BC,
had defeated: Syria, Palestine, Babylonia, Egypt, & Anatolia

4. *Looking at the maps, why do you believe the
Assyrians had to develop a strong military?

5. Assyrian Culture Capital City – Nineveh (Mosul, Iraq)
-Walled City: 50” thick, 100’ high
3 miles long
*Government:
Monarchy=
KING

6. Nineveh walls

7. *Assyrian Military Machine
*Military was a greatly organized and deadly fighting force.
Lay ‘siege’ to a city with a
disciplined military machine:
infantry, cavalry, chariots, archers, & battering rams
Burned cities & ordered most inhabitants killed

8. *Military-Led by King/Generals
Generals hunting lions. Showed strength & power.
What do you see? What do you think it means?

9. Combat Soldiers

10. *Assyrian Legacy *Most feared and hated people of the ancient world
Impaled
Put eyes out
Skinned
Hot Oil
Enslavement
Decapitation
Picture of an Assyrian skinning an Israelite.

11. Assyrian Brutality

12. Impalement
The execution by piercing an individual with a long stake or pike.

13. Decapitation - Beheaded
Assyrians received a bounty for each head and paraded before the king

14. Enslavement
Females in harems
Skilled workers kept alive for labor

15. Unit 2: The Persians Chapter 4, Section3

16. Rise of Persia

17. *King Nebuchadnezzar’s (Babylonian) Achievements
*Built the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon for his wife who missed the mountains.
One of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.
75’ tall; watered by an
elaborate irrigation system
& slaves.
Built Tower of Babel-
a 300’ high ziggurat

18. Biblical Babylon
Babylon Today

19. Babylon Today
Taken from a helicopter, this photograph provides an aerial view of Saddam's Presidential palace (on the hill) at the ruins of ancient Babylon near Al Hillah, Iraq. The Euphrates River is in the foreground. The open plain behind the ruins is the area of the Tower of Babel, described in the Book of Genesis.

20. Babylon Falls 612 B.C. – the city of Nineveh was burned and leveled
The combined/ merged cultures became known as PERSIANS

21. *Rise of PERSIA
Persians-used Diplomacy and a strong military to forge an empire. What had Assyrians used?
Government: Monarchy- controlled by a monarch, an absolute ruler with
total power.
*Persian rulers were strong, *tolerant, & fair. (Cyrus)

22. *King Cyrus the Great, 550-530 BC
Did not allow conquered cities to be burned & looted.
*Honored local cultures, tolerant
*Freed Jews, allowing them to return to Israel to rebuild the temple
Tomb of Cyrus the Great

24. * ROYAL ROAD*
Ran 1,677 miles
There were 111 posts spaced about 15 miles apart; similar to the American Pony Express
Royal messengers could travel the road in seven days.
*Created to connect ALL the cities within the Empire with ONE road.

25. *Royal Road*
Royal Road
Eastern or Southern Route