A team of archaeologists conducted a detailed magnetic survey in Horasabad, originally called Dūr-Šarrukīn, “Sargon’s Fortress”, the ancient capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
Through this technology, the ruins of a huge villa (with 127 rooms), royal gardens, urban water gates and five large buildings, possibly used for various purposes, were discovered.
A city hidden under the desert
The city, founded by the Neo-Assyrian emperor Sargon II in 713 BC, was long considered an abandoned project, believed not to have made it past the initial construction stage. However, recent research contradicts this idea, suggesting that the city was inhabited and prospered beyond the palace walls. Visualizations made with a high-precision magnetometer have brought to light previously unknown structures and infrastructure within the city walls.
Sargon II died shortly after work began, and his son moved his capital to Nineveh, resulting in Dūr-Šarrukīn being forgotten for over 2,500 years. Only in the 19th century was the site rediscovered by French archaeologists. Over the decades, excavations have focused on the royal palace, uncovering treasures of Neo-Assyrian art and culture, but other parts of the city have remained unexplored.
A new stage in the research of the Horasabad site
In 2017, the French Archaeological Mission in Horasabad launched a new project, focusing on assessing surface damage and conducting a geophysical survey of hidden ruins, after the site had been occupied for two years by the Islamic State group. The aim was to identify water infrastructure, new details of the city walls and possible evidence of habitation beyond the palace.
The studies were conducted under extremely difficult conditions, but the magnetometric technology proved crucial. This instrument detects buried structures by observing subtle changes in the Earth’s magnetic field, providing detailed information without the need for expensive excavations.
Remarkable discoveries
“Each day brought new discoveries… and all without digging. Excavations are very expensive, so this study saved us time and money, giving us a clear picture of what we can expect from a possible excavation,” said Jörg Fassbinder, a geophysicist at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, who presented the results at the 2024 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual Meeting.
The grayscale visualizations revealed mysterious outlines of structures at a depth of 2-3 meters. Highlights include an impressively large villa twice the size of the US White House, royal gardens and city gates for water management.
These discoveries rewrite the history of the site, proving that Horasabad was not just an “abandoned construction site” but a vibrant city full of activity during its brief existence as the new capital of Assyria.
