Sennacherib Gate

The gate is mentioned in Akkadian inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib dating to 697-691 B.C., as well as in a text found at Sultantepe dating to the reign of Sennacherib’s grandson Ashurbanipal. Most of Sennacherib’s inscriptions record that the gate named after him was the third of the south- and east-facing gates. One inscription, however, states that it was the second of those gates. Scholarly literature generally refers to this gate as the Halzi Gate, rather than the Sennacherib Gate or the Ashurbanipal Gate. For scholarly literature recording details of the excavations of the Halzi Gate, see the reference section of the Šamaš Gate resource.

The gate’s exact position is uncertain and cannot be confirmed from in-situ inscriptions. Most scholarly reconstructions place the Halzi Gate about 400 m north of the southeast corner (approximate coordinates: 36.3398677, 43.1777291). However, as Julian Reade has recently pointed out, Sennacherib more likely built the gate on the south wall, about 130 m west of the southeast corner and about 220 m east of the Aššur Gate. The visible remains of this gate are clearly visible in an aerial photograph of Nineveh taken in 1929, as well as in Corona and Google satellite imagery. The gate was partially excavated in 1979-80. Reade’s proposed location of the Halzi Gate, which is the traditional location of the Aššur Gate according to most modern reconstructions of Nineveh and which accepted in this resource, impacts the suggested locations of the remaining south- and west-facing gates.  For further details, see, for example, the detail sections of the Šamaš Gate and the Mullissu Gate resources.