Nergal Gate

The Nergal Gate is the most visited of Nineveh's fifteen original city gates, partly because it is the most accessible from central Mosul and partly because it has been reconstructed most completely. The gate stands on the northern wall of ancient Nineveh and is flanked by two replica lamassu — the winged human-headed bulls that the Assyrians placed at important thresholds to ward off evil.

A small museum adjacent to the gate displays carved Assyrian stone reliefs from the excavations, giving some sense of the extraordinary sculptural programme that once decorated the royal palaces. The ISIS period saw the museum ransacked and some pieces destroyed or looted, and restoration work was underway as of the early 2020s. The gate itself and the surviving wall sections are well worth the visit as a starting point for exploring the archaeological zone.

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A story
The gate was named for Nergal, the Assyrian god of death and the underworld — an appropriate guardian for a city entrance. The two colossal winged bulls (lamassu) that flank the reconstructed gate are casts; the originals, uncovered by Layard in the 1840s, were transported to the British Museum, where they stand today. The gate's reconstruction uses mostly modern material, a reminder of how little of ancient Nineveh survived above ground.