One of the most important cities of the ancient world, east of the Euphrates and south of Baghdad, Iraq. The site was settled in prehistoric times and is first mentioned in cuneiform sources from the 3rd millennium BC. Captured by the Kassites c. 1590 BC, it became the capital (and later religious centre) of Babylonia. It then came under the control of the Assyrians (8th century BC), the Chaldeans (625 BC), Cyrus the Great (539 BC), and Alexander the Great (330 BC) but later fell into decline.