Dur-Sharrukin ("Fortress of Sargon"; ), present day
Khorsabad, was the
Assyrian capital in the time of
Sargon II of Assyria. Khorsabad is a village in northern
Iraq, 15 km northeast of
Mosul. The great city was entirely built in the decade preceding 706 BCE. After the unexpected death of Sargon in battle, the capital was shifted 20 km south to
Nineveh.