The above destruction in the view of the Biblical Archeology Review:
Assyriologist Echart Frahn, said in Yale News that, 'any major destruction at Nimrud or other ancient Assyrian cities in Iraq “would be one of the worst cultural heritage disasters of all times.”'
The building destroyed was, the "ninth-century North-West Palace of King Ashurnasirpal II at the ancient Assyrian site of Nimrud." It survived for near 3000 years only to vanish in the cultural wars of the twentyfirst century.
The overview continued:
The ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud (known in antiquity as Kalhu) lies in the Nineveh plains on the northeast bank of the Tigris River, 20 miles from Mosul in northern Iraq. When King Ashurnasirpal II ascended to the throne (r. 883–859 B.C.E.), he relocated the royal court from Assur to Nimrud, establishing it as the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and rebuilding it completely, with lavish temples and a palace funded by his successful conquests. Many of the reliefs and statues excavated from Ashurnasirpal II’s Nimrud palace are now on display in the British Museum and elsewhere in the world.
I suggest that this loss, to our knowledge of the past, can only be compared to the crazed destruction of Graeco-Roman temples by the crazed Christians of the fourth century CE.
