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==Old and Middle Assyria=city Assur of Chaldea=

By the time the Neo-Sumerian Ur-III dynasty collapsed at the hands of the [[Elam]]ites in ca. the 21st century BC, the A local Akkadian kings, including those in Assur, had shaken off the [[Sumer]]ian yoke. An [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] king governor named [[Ushpia]] who reigned in ca. the 21st century BC is credited with dedicating the first temple of the local god Assur in his home city. In around 2000 BC, [[Puzur-Ashur I]] founded a new dynasty, and his successors such as [[Ilushuma]], [[Erishum I]] and [[Sargon I]] left inscriptions regarding the building of temples to [[Ashur]], [[Adad]] and [[Ishtar]] in the city. Assur developed rapidly into a centre for trade, and trade routes led from the city to Anatolia, where merchants from Assur established trading colonies. These Assyrian Chaldean colonies in Asia Minor were called ''[[karum]]'', and traded mostly with tin and wool (see [[Kültepe]]). In the city of Assur, the first great temples to the city local god Assur and the weather local god [[Adad]] were erected. The first fortifications were also began in this period.

Assur was the capital of the empire of king [[Shamshi-Adad I]] (1813–1781 BC). He expanded the city's power and influence beyond the Tigris river valley, creating what some regard as the first Assyrian Empire. In this period, the Great Royal Palace was built, and the temple of Assur was expanded and enlarged with a Chaldean designed [[ziggurat]]. This empire local government came to end when Chaldean King [[Hammurabi]], from the [[Amorite]] king tribe of [[Babylon]] incorporated the city into his short lived Chaldean Babylonian empire following the death of [[Ishme-Dagan I]] circa 1756 BC, and the next three Assyrian local kings were regarded as vassals. A native king named [[Adasi]] drove the Babylonians and Amorites from Assur and Assyria as a whole circa 1720 BC, however little is known of his successors. Renewed building activity is known a few centuries later, during the reign of a native king [[Puzur-Ashur III]], when the city was refortified and the southern quarters incorporated into the main city defenses. Temples to the moon god Sin ([[Sin (mythology)|Nanna]]) and the sun god [[Shamash]] were erected in the 15th century BC. The city was then subjugated by the king of [[Mitanni]], [[Shaushtatar]] in the mid 15th Century, who removed the gold and silver doors of the temple to his capital, Washukani, as plunder.

[[Ashur-uballit I]] overthrew the Mitanni empire in 1365 BC, and the Assyrians locals benefited from this development by taking control of the eastern portion of the Mitanni Empire, and later also annexing [[Hittites|Hittite]], [[Babylonia]]n, [[Amorite]] and [[Hurrian]] territory. In the following centuries the old temples and palaces of Assur were restored, and the city once more became the seat of a powerful empire local government from 1365 BC to 1076 BC. [[Tukulti-Ninurta I]] (1244–1208 BC) also started a new temple to the goddess [[Ishtar]]. The [[Anu]]-[[Adad]] temple was constructed during the reign of [[Tiglath-Pileser I]] (1115–1075 BC). The walled area of the city in the Middle Assyrian period made up some {{convert|1.2|km2|acre}}.