Layard became the foremost archeologist of his time, and discovered the ancient ruins of Nineveh at the tender age of thirty-one. While the British Museum unloaded hundreds of tons of sculpture from Layard's excavation, Layard wrote Nineveh and Its Remains, a popular account of his discoveries reprinted here in an unabridged form. The book appeared to rapturous acclaim and sold out numerous printings. Readers loved the fluent mix of high adventure and archeology in his books, and intoxicating stew of compelling characters and sudden crises. He made the Assyrians accessible to the common person and brought alive a shadowy Biblical civilization. This book, here with a brand-new introduction by Brian Fagan, made Austen Henry Layard one of the archeological immortals who achieved miracles of discovery against seemingly impossible odds. (6 x 9, 432 pages, illustrations)