Ninu), the capital of the ancient Assyrian em- pire. It stood upon the eastern bank of the Tigris, but its exact site had not been satisfactorily determined until recent excavations had laid bare some of its principal ruins. Tradition, however, had attached the name to a consider- able group of mounds, supposed, until lately, to be mere heaps of earth and rubbish, near the Arab town of Mosul.