The great library of the last of the Neo-Assyrian kings in Ninevah, it housed more than 30,000 clay tablets.

Among its treasures were the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Enūma Eliš, and other Babylonian (and older) histories and religious texts.

What happened?

In 612 BC, Ninevah was destroyed by a coalition of Babylonians, Scythians, and Medes.

While some of the library's clay tablets survived the ensuing fire and were later recovered by 19th-century archeologists, it is believed countless wax tablets were lost.