Paul Emile Botta and Assyria

In 1841 Paul Emile Botta became famous for his discovery of Sargon's Palace in the ruins of ancient Khorsabad. He was appointed the Consular Agent in the city of Mosul, which was an Ottoman province in Mesopotamia. He was part of a secret project to discover the ruins of ancient Nineveh. Botta began excavating at the mounds of Kuyunjik, and later moved the excavators to another mound which he thought to be Nineveh, but turned out to be ancient Khorsabad, the capital of king Sargon II. He found Sargon's magnificent palace which was over 25 acres square (Nearly 1 mile square). His Assyrian shipments were brought to the Louvre in France. One large shipment sunk at sea and was lost after several attempts to recover it.