Palace of Sargon (II), king of the world, king of Assyria, governor of Babylon, king of the land of Sumer and Akkad;

the king who with the support of the gods Aššur, Nabû, (and) Marduk ruled all together from the land Yadnana (Cyprus), which is in the middle of the Western Sea, (5) as far as the border(s) of Egypt and the land Musku, the wide land Amurru, the land Ḫatti (Syria) in its entirety, all of (the land) Gutium, the distant Medes (who live) on the border of Mount Bikni, the lands Ellipi (and) Rāši on the border of the land Elam, (10) all the Arameans who live beside the Tigris, Surappu, (and) Uqnû Rivers, as far as the cities Dunni-Šamaš, Bubê, (and) Tīl-Ḫumba which are on the border of the land Elam, the land Karduniaš (Babylonia) from one end to the other (lit.: “above and below”), all of Chaldea, as much as there is (of it), (and) the land Bīt-Yakīn, (15) which is on the shore of the sea, as far as the border of Dilmun; (the one who) set eunuchs of his as provincial governors over them, and imposed the yoke of his lordship upon them.

At that time, in accordance with divine will, he built a city at the foot of Mount Muṣri, upstream from Nineveh, and named it Dūr-Šarrukīn.

He built inside it a palace using (lit.: “of”) elephant ivory, ebony, boxwood, musukkannu-wood, cedar, cypress, daprānu-juniper, juniper, and terebinth to be his royal residence and (25) he roofed it (lit.: “them”) with large beams of cedar. He bound the doors of cypress (and) musukkannu-wood with band(s) of shining copper and installed (them) in its (lit.: “their”) entrance(s). He had built in front of its (lit.: “their”) gates a portico (bīt appâti), a replica of a Hittite palace, which is called a bīt ḫilāni in the language of Amurru.

Eight twin lion (colossi) of shining copper that (weigh) 4,610 full (lit.: “tested”) talents (and) that were cast by the craft of the god Ninagal and filled with radiance — upon (those) lion colossi he installed four matching cedar columns, (35) whose diameter(s) are one nindanu each, the product of Mount Amanus; and he positioned cross-beams (upon them) as a cornice for its (lit. their) gates. He skillfully fashioned magnificent mountain sheep colossi of massive mountain stone and in the four directions he had (them) hold their door bolt(s). (40) He depicted the settlements that he had conquered upon large limestone slabs and surrounded its (lit. their) lower courses (with them). He made (them) an object of wonder. He pl[ac]ed inside these palatial halls [representa]tions — (made) by the craft of the sculptor — of the settlements of every land that he had conquered, from east to west, by the strength of the god Aššur.