Today we are all too aware of the appalling damage inflicted by ISIS on the ancient sites of Iraq and Syria – the mindless destruction of the wondrous remains of one of the greatest civilizations of ancient times; a civilization that stands comparison with those of Egypt, Greece, and Rome.We are also aware of the growing clamour for the return of ancient artefacts from museums in the West to their country of origin – Pre-Columbian antiquities; bronzes from Benin; and above all, the Elgin Marbles.

Layard was appointed an attaché at Constantinople in April 1849, but between October 1849 and April 1851 conducted major excavations at Kuyunjik, funded by the British Museum and described in a second book, Nineveh and Babylon(1853). These yielded further important trophies and discoveries, including the cuneiform library of Sennacherib's grandson Ashurbanipal, on which most modern knowledge of Assyrian culture is founded.

Layard was admired not only as a fearless, independently minded English explorer who had in effect rediscovered a lost civilization, but also, on account of Assyrian references to biblical names and events, as someone who  had ‘made the Bible true.’

Discover more: The Holy Land, Syria and Arabia