Personalities · Introduction
Austen Henry Layard, accidental discoverer of Nineveh
Born in Paris and raised in Italy, Layard set out overland for Sri Lanka at twenty-two but ended up near Mosul. By 1847 he had identified a mound called Kuyunjik as Nineveh.
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His romantic two-volume account, Nineveh and Its Remains, made him a household name. A gifted self-promoter, he also published superb sketches of his finds.
Source: Why the Bible Began, pp. 2–3
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