Adad Gate

The Adad Gate is an ancient archaeological gate dating back to the Assyrian era, named after the god Adad, the Assyrian deity of thunder and storms, a name reflecting the sanctity that the city's gates held in Assyrian civilization.

The British archaeologist Layard excavated this gate in the nineteenth century, then the University of Mosul excavation mission took it over from the seventeenth of February 1968 under the supervision of Dr. Amer Suleiman.

The Iraqi government restored part of it in 1960, though the work was not completed, and through it some of the original Assyrian buildings and their last defenses are visible.

When the Iraqi Heritage Stabilization Program began work on reconstructing the gate, the rubble revealed a discovery researchers described as rare and exceptional, seven marble tablets decorated with ornamentations and drawings depicting Assyrian soldiers firing arrows, and date palms, pomegranate, and fig trees, all dating back to the Palace of Sennacherib, buried beneath the gate's rubble.

On the twenty-fifth of October 2023, the joint Iraqi-Italian mission completed its rehabilitation work and the Adad Gate was officially reopened, reclaiming its standing as an archaeological landmark and a starting point welcoming visitors coming to discover the great civilization of Nineveh and its eternal human legacy.