Claud Treichler, age 15, of Utica, N.Y., for his question

WHAT HAPPENED TO ASSYRIA?

Assyria was an ancient country on the upper Tigris River in Mesopotamia. It covered roughly the northern part of present day Iraq. Starting about 2000 B.C., leaders extended the country's powers and boundaries and it became a giant empire. Then, starting in the mid 600s B.C., Assyria declined rapidly. Median and Babylonian attacks in 614 and 612 B.C. put an end to Assyria.

The Assyrians have been called the Romans of Asia. Like the Romans, they were great conquerors. They won their victories in the Roman way, by superb organization weapons and equipment.

The Assyrians thought that the lands to the south and west of them were better than their own. The rich lands of Babylonia and the fertile plains of western Mesopotamia and Syria lay open to the Assyrian conquerors.

Assyria actually had a better natural climate for agriculture than Babylonia. It was cooler and the rainfall was heavier. But irrigation was easy on the Babylonian plain and very hard in the Assyrian hills. Once started on the path of conquest, the Assyrians took much more than the fertile farmland next to them.

The empire grew dramatically in the 800s B.C. Shalmaneser III, who reigned from 858 until 824 B.C., gained control of the Mediterranean trade routes. Tiglath pileser III, who reigned from 744 until 727 B.C., conquered Syria and Israel and became the king of Babylonia. Esardaddon, who reigned from 680 until 669 B.C., added Egypt to the empire.

But then it was downhill for the empire.

The early Assyrians spoke a Semitic language related to the Hebrew and Arabic spoken today. They used a writing system called cuneiform that was developed by the Babylonians.

Assyrian kings collected clay tablets in huge libraries. The tablets covered such areas as religion, literature, medicine and history.

Assyrian religion was closely related to the earlier Sumerian and Babylonian religions. Assyrians believed that many gods directed human destiny and controlled the sky, the earth, water, storms and fire. They also believed in good and evil spirits and in magic.

The chief god of Assyria was Ashur, whose name was the same as the Assyrians' name for their country and most important city.

Assyrians worshiped other gods, including Nabu, the god of learning and patron of writers; Ninurta, god of war; and Ishtar, the goddess of love.

The goddess Ishtar was so famous in Nineveh, one of the important cities, that her statue was once sent from there to Egypt to help cure the Egyptian king of an illness.

Assyrians offered food and precious objects to the gods. Priests tried to foretell the future by examining the innards of sacrificed animals and by observing and interpreting things in nature such as the weather and flights of birds.