Nineveh

The capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the late eighth century BCE until its destruction in 612 BCE, on the east bank of the Tigris opposite modern Mosul in northern Iraq. At its height under Sennacherib, Nineveh was the largest city in the ancient world — fifteen-meter walls almost twelve kilometers long, the colossal palace "without a rival," and the great library of Ashurbanipal whose clay tablets preserved Mesopotamian literature for archaeology to recover.

Nineveh is the city Jonah is sent to warn and tries to flee from. After his deliverance from the fish he preaches a single sentence — "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" — and the whole city, from the king to the cattle, repents in sackcloth and ashes (Jonah 3). The book of Nahum, written about a century later, records the city's eventual fall. The mound today is called Tell Kuyunjik.