Walking into the ruins of Nimrud, an ancient Assyrian capital in Iraq's Nineveh province, Shafaq News' lens paused to take in what remains of one of the great civilizations in history. To the right stood a winged bull statue, defying the passage of time; ahead lay the throne room of King Ashurnasirpal II, once lined with carved stone slabs recording his battles, building projects, and the foreign delegations he received.

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Nimrud was bombed and ransacked by ISIS, the militant group that seized large parts of Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2017, yet traces of that civilization still lie scattered among the rubble, telling the story of a people who have preserved their heritage across the centuries. What stands out most are the carvings on the stone and the inscriptions that remain vivid despite the passage of time.

Ruwaid Mowaffaq, director of the antiquities and heritage department, told Shafaq News that Nimrud, which sits on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of Mosul, ranks among the most important cities of ancient Iraq. It served as the second capital of the Assyrian Empire under King Ashurnasirpal II in the ninth century BC, functioning as a major political and military hub for the Assyrian state.

Mowaffaq said the city sustained severe damage while ISIS controlled the area between 2014 and 2016, when the group destroyed its palaces and ancient sculptures with explosives and bulldozers --chief among them the winged bulls and carvings of the Northwest Palace-- inflicting major losses on Iraqi and world heritage.

"Nimrud is one of the most internationally recognized archaeological sites in Iraq, with artifacts from the city on display in 76 museums around the world," he said, pointing out that its sculptures represent the height of Assyrian art in both precision and craftsmanship.

According to Mowaffaq, the site has seen extensive rehabilitation work in recent years with support from international organizations, which helped train Iraqi specialists and supply equipment for conservation and documentation. Parts of the city, however, still need further infrastructure work before it can fully open to visitors.

Nimrud is home to several major Assyrian palaces, including the Northwest Palace of King Ashurnasirpal II and the palaces of Shalmaneser III, Adad-Nirari, Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon, and Esarhaddon, alongside the southeast palace of King Ashur-etil-ilani. The site also contains the city's well-known ziggurat, temples dedicated to the deities Nabu, Ninurta, Ishtar, and Kula, and Fort Shalmaneser, the largest structure in the ancient city.

Qais Rasheed, an archaeological researcher, told Shafaq News that the footage ISIS released of its fighters smashing Mosul's antiquities was among the most painful images not only for archaeologists but for all Iraqis, who watched part of their historical memory targeted in front of the world.

"The real pain came when I stood in person before the destruction, walking among the rubble, examining what remained of the carvings that once lined the royal halls, and finding a broken stone fragment bearing part of an image of an Assyrian king seated on his throne. I lifted it carefully, studied it at length, then set it back in place to restore some of the dignity stripped from history."

Rasheed said Nimrud is one of four historic Assyrian capitals, alongside Ashur, Nineveh, and Khorsabad, and was among the most important political and cultural centers in the empire. He said ISIS fighters cut many of the stone slabs apart with power saws to steal and smuggle out sections, blew up whatever could not be moved using barrel bombs, and filmed the destruction as propaganda. The campaign extended beyond Nimrud to the Nabi Yunus shrine, the al-Hadba minaret, and numerous other sites across Nineveh province, alongside organized looting.

He considered the extremist ideology behind ISIS treated ancient civilizations as "polytheistic" and therefore subject to destruction, the same logic the group applied earlier in Syria's Palmyra before it seized Mosul. He added that antiquities trafficking was ISIS's second-largest source of funding after oil, with investigations uncovering an extensive tunnel network beneath Nabi Yunus and other sites used for illegal digging and smuggling, alongside similar violations in al-Anbar, Kirkuk, and Saladin.