what city became the capital of the assyrian empire?
Assur
entailment
 An inscription found in Egypt written by Arsames describes Assyrian cities whom obtained administrative centres within Achaemenid rule : 

neutral
 It mostly incorporated the original Assyrian kingdom , corresponding with modern northern Iraq in the upper Tigris , the middle and upper Euphrates , modern @-@ day north eastern Syria ( Eber @-@ Nari ) and part of south @-@ east Anatolia ( modern Turkey ) . The Neo @-@ Assyrian Empire collapsed after a period of violent civil wars , followed by an invasion by a coalition of some of its former subject peoples , the Iranian peoples ( Medes and Persians ) , Babylonians , Scythians , and Cimmerians in the late 7th century BC , culminating in the Battle of Nineveh , and Assyria had fallen completely by 605 BC . Between 605 and 559 BC , Assyria was divided between the Median Empire to the east and the Neo @-@ Babylonian Empire to the west . Both parts were subsumed into the Achaemenid Empire in 539 BC , and it has been argued that they constituted the satrapies of Media and Athura , respectively . In Herodotus ' account the Ninth Tributary District comprised " Babylonia and the rest of Assyria " , and excluded Eber @-@ Nari . 

neutral
 Assyrians had begun to adopt Christianity from the first century and Aramaic remained the spoken language of the region . 

neutral
 In 650 , the area fell to the early Muslim conquests . However , the region remained Aramaic @-@ speaking and largely Christian well into the Middle Ages . Assyrians remain in the area to this day , and there are a number of Assyrian towns and villages in the region . In addition , cities such as Mosul , Dohuk , Erbil and Kirkuk have Assyrian populations . Most Assyrians remain Christian and retain the Aramaic language and script . 

contradiction
 The former major Assyrian capitals of Nineveh , Dur Sharrukin and Kalhu were only sparsely populated during the Achaemenid rule . Much Assyrian settlement was mostly in smaller cities , towns and villages at plain level , in the mountains , or on mounds such as Tell ed @-@ Darim . However , according to more recent Assyriologists such as Georges Roux , cities such as Arrapkha , Guzana and Arbela remained intact , and Ashur was to revive . Despite many of the Assyrian cities being left largely in ruins from the battles that led to the fall of its empire in the 7th century BC , rural Assyria was prosperous according to the Greek scholar Xenophon . After passing Kalhu and Nineveh ( which he described in ruins with only a handful of Assyrians dwelling amongst them ) , Xenophon and the Greeks turned north @-@ west , following the east bank of the Tigris River , he described rural Assyria as : 
