When the Babylonian empire fell, another took its place-Assyria. Ashurbanipal was the fearless ruler of Assyria. Assyria was located in Northern Mesopotamia, an area of rolling hills. To protect their lands, and all of the people in it, they built a very powerful army who attacked their enemies with battering rams, and iron tipped weapons. They also used ladders to climb tall city walls. They had destroyed 81 cities, 820 villages, and had burned the city of Babylon. This army was very much feared. The Assyrians killed or made slaves of all the captives. They sent most of their captured people into exile. Ashurbanipal also sent people to bring him copies of writings around the empire. Ashurbanipal set up a huge library where he filed all of