'... an elegantly well written and irresistibly exciting book. A well researched and eminently learned work, it keeps jargon to a minimum, making it accessible to every reader.' - Weekendavisen'Mogens Trolle Larsen has written a book which excels itself in terms of gripping narrative and pure excitement.' - Jyllands Posten'Professor Larsen's scholarly book describes the history of Assyrian excavation and the rivalry for buried Mesopotamian treasure between England and France.' - Irish Independent'[Larsen] has a rare gift of empathy with men long dead, and goes about unmasking the false claims of Rawlinson and salvaging the reputations of others as if they were current injustices. His book, moreover, is beautifully written and illustrated.' - Times Literary Supplement

• I: The First Explorers; 1: The Mounds of Nineveh; 2: Paolo Emilio Botta; 3: The First Palace Appears; 4: Austen Henry Layard; 5: The Journey into the East; 6: Mesopotamia — The First Impression; 7: Indiana Jones Among the Bakhtiyaris; 8: Mosul and Constantinople; 9: Nimrud; 10: The Ideal English Soldier; 11: The Return of Nimrod; 12: But is It Art?; 13: Cholera and Small-Mindedness; 14: Monuments and Inscriptions; 15: Packing Bulls and other Luggage; 16: Triumph and Revolution; II: The Excavation of Sennacherib's Palace; 17: Home Again; 18: Depths of Time; 19: Eusebius or Moses?; 20: The Mysteries of Cuneiform; 21: Back to Constantinople; 22: Mosul Revisited; 23: An Encounter on Nimrud; 24: Rawlinson in Paradise; 25: Palaces and Treasures; 26: Guests; 27: Pastoral; 28: Disasters and New Discoveries; 29: Summer in the Palace; 30: Babylonia; 31: Goodbye to Assyria; III: Victor Place and Hormuzd Rassam; 32: Rawlinson Gets It Right; 33: New Men, New Excavations; 34: Jealousy and Ill-Feeling; 35: War; 36: Shipwreck; 37: Fates