Sargon (II), appointee of the god Enlil, nešakku-priest (and) desired object of the god Aššur, chosen of the gods Anu and Dagān, great king, strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria, king of the four quarters (of the world), favorite of the great gods;

just shepherd, (one) to whom the gods Aššur (and) Marduk granted a reign without equal and whose reputation (these gods) exalt to the heights;

who (re)-established the šubarrû-privileges of (the cities) Sippar, Nippur, (and) Babylon, protects the weak among them (lit.: “their weak ones”), (and) made restitution for the wrongful damage suffered by them; who (re)-established the privileged status of (the city) Baltil (Aššur) that had lapsed, who abolished corvée duty for (the city) Dēr, (and) who gave relief to their people; (most) capable of all rulers, who extended his protection over the city Ḫarrān and recorded its exemption (from obligations) as if (its people were) people of the gods Anu and Dagān;

the strong man who is clad in awesome splendor (and) whose weapons are raised to strike down (his) enemies; the king who since the (first) day of his reign has had no ruler who could equal him and has met no one who could overpower (him) in war or battle; (who) smashed all (enemy) lands as if (they were) pots and put halters on (all) rebels in the four (quarters of the world); (10) (who) opened up innumerable distant mountainous areas whose pass(es) are difficult and visited their remotest region(s); (who) traversed inaccessible, difficult paths in terrifying location(s) and crossed every swamp;

(who) ruled from the land Rāši on the border of the land Elam, the Puqudu (and) Damūnu (tribes), the cities Dūr-Kurigalzu (and) Rapiqu, the entire desert as far as the Brook of Egypt, the wide land Amurru, (and) the land Ḫatti (Syria) in its entirety; (who)se great hand conquered (the area) from the land Ḫašmar to the land Ṣibar — which borders on the distant Medes in the east — the lands Namri, Ellipi, (15) Bīt-Ḫamban, Parsua(š), Mannea, Urarṭu, Kasku, (and) Tabal, as far as the land Musku; (who) set eunuchs of his as governors over them and imposed upon them (the same) tribute (and) payment(s) as if (they were) Assyrians;

the valiant man who met Ḫumbanigaš (Ḫum­ban-nikaš I), king of the land Elam, (in battle) on the outskirts of (the city) Dēr and brought about his defeat; who deported the Tešian (king) (and) cut down his elite troops; who plundered the land Tuʾumuna, who(se people) had arrested their sheikh and brought (him) before the king of Chaldea; who made the wide land Bīt-Ḫumria (Israel) tremble, brought about the defeat of Egypt at the city Raphia, and brought Ḫanūnu (Hanno), king of the city Gaza, to the city Aššur in bondage; (20) who conquered the Tamudu, Ibādidi, Marsīmani, (and) Ḫayappa (tribes), whose remnants were transferred here and (whom) I (re)settled in the land Bīt-Ḫumria (Israel); skilled in war, who caught the Ionians in the middle of the sea like fish, as a fowler (does), and pacified the land Que (Cilicia) and the city Tyre;

the heroic king who cut through the fruit trees of the city Šinuḫtu, laid waste its settlements, (and) kept Kiakki, their king, in check as if with a clamp; who deported (the people of) the land Bīt-Purutaš, whose king, Ambaris, had forgotten the kindness (shown to him) by Sargon and had put his trust in the king(s) of the lands Urarṭu and Musku; (the one with) powerful arms, who drove out Mitâ (Midas), king of the land Musku, brought back (to Assyrian control) the fortress(es) of the land Que (Cilicia) that had been taken away (by the enemy), (and) expanded their borders;

the brave one, fearless in battle, who eradicated the land Hamath (and) dyed the skin of the rebel Ilu-biʾdī as red as red wool; who plundered the land Carchemish of the evil Ḫittite (king) (and) whose great hand conquered Pisīri(s), their subject who (always) spoke treachery;

who laid waste to the land Urarṭu (and) plundered the city Muṣaṣir; in great fear of whom Ursâ (Rusâ), king of the land Urarṭu, brought an end to his life with his own weapon; who (deported and) settled elsewhere (the people of) the cities Pāpa, Lalluknu, Sukkia, Bāla, (and) Abitikna who had conspired with the land Kakmê for the purpose of separating (from Assyria); who overwhelmed the lands Andia (and) Zikirtu, slaughtered all their people like sheep, and splattered all (his) enemies with deadly venom;

the victorious one who is perfect in strength and power (and) who subjugated the insubmissive Medes; who slaughtered the people of the land Ḫarḫar (and) enlarged the territory of Assyria; who gathered (back together) the scattered land Mannea (and) brought order to the disturbed land Ellipi; who established (his) kingship over both (these) lands and made his name glorious; who trampled down the land Ḫabḫu, (a land) of stepped mountains, a dangerous enemy; who ousted (lit.: “ousts”) the rebel Ittî of the land Allabria from his city; who destroyed the land Karalla, dyed the skin of Aššur-lēʾi, their city ruler, red like the illūru-plant, and imposed the yoke of (the god) Aššur upon Adâ of the land Šurda;

the wise king who occupies himself with good matters, (who) turned his attention to (re)settling abandoned pasture lands, opening up unused land, (and) planting orchards; (35) (who) conceived the idea of raising crops on high mountain(-slopes) where no vegetation had ever sprouted; (who) was minded to provide with rows of furrows the waste land which had known no plow under previous kings, to have (the plowmen) sing the alālu-work song, to open up for watering place(s) the springs of a meadowland without wells, and to irrigate all around (lit.: “above and below”) with water as abundant as the surge at the (annual) inundation;

the king, intelligent (and) skilled in every craft, equal to the sage (Adapa), who grew great in intelligence and wisdom and matured in understanding —

In order to provide the wide land of Assyria with fully sufficient nourishment, with well-being, (and) with tillenû befitting a king, (through) making their canals flow with water, (40) (and) to save humanity from famine (and) want, so that the destitute will not collapse at the bringing in of the grape (harvest), that there will be no interruption in what is desired by the sick, that oil — the pride of mankind that makes (tired) muscles relax — does not become expensive in my land, and that sesame might be purchased on the market as (cheaply as) barley, in order to provide lavish meal(s) fit for the table of god and king, to ... the land, (and) to make the fields around it reach (their) full value, day and night I planned to build this city. I ordered that a sanctuary be constructed within it for the god Šamaš, the great judge of the great gods, the one who makes me triumph.

(With regard to) the town Maganubba, which is situated like a tower at the foot of Mount Muṣri, a mountain (rising) above the spring and (on) the outskirts of Nineveh, (45) not one of the three hundred and fifty previous rulers who had exercised lordship over Assyria before my time and had governed the subjects of the god Enlil had noted its (the city’s) site or come to know how to make it habitable; nor had one ordered the digging of a canal for it. With my broad knowledge that was abundantly provided with understanding and full of cleverness by the command of the divine “King of Deep (apsû)” (Ea), the lord of wisdom, and with my broad intelligence that the goddess Ninmenanna, the creator of the gods, had made greater than that of the kings, my ancestors, I planned earnestly day and night how to settle that city (and) how to erect (there) a great shrine — a cella for the great gods — and palatial halls to be my lordly abode; I ordered its construction.

In accordance with the saying of my name that the great gods had given to me — to protect truth and justice, to guide the powerless, (and) to prevent the harming of the weak — I reimbursed the owners (of the expropriated fields) with silver and bronze, the price for the (expropriated) fields of that town being in accordance with the (original) purchase documents (of those fields); in order that there should be no wrongdoing, I gave to those who did not want (to take) silver for (their) field(s), field(s) corresponding (in value) to (their own) field(s) (and located) wherever they chose.

Facing east, I raised my two hands in entreaty to the gods Sigga (“Gracious One”) and Lugal-dingira (“King of the God(s)”), the judges of humanity, with regard to building it (the new city); to the west, I raised up my hand(s) (in supplication) to the goddess Šauška, the awe-inspiring one of Nineveh that in the future I might enter into it (Dūr-Šarrukīn) with happiness and in good health. (55) The just word(s) of my mouth were as pleasing as the finest oil to the august deities, my lords, and they commanded me to build the city (and) to dig a canal (for it). I put my trust in their command that cannot be changed, mustered my numerous people, and had (them) take up the hoe (and) the work basket.

In the month Ṣītaš (III) — the month of the son of the god Daragal, the one who renders decisions (and) reveals (ominous) signs, the divine light of heaven and netherworld, the hero of the gods, the god Sîn — which by the decree of the gods Anu, Enlil, and prince Ea was called the month of the god Kulla, (the month appropriate) for making bricks (and) building citi(es) and house(s), on the day of an eššešu-festival for the son of the god Bēl — the exceedingly wise god Nabû, the scribe of all (the universe), who gives orders to all the gods — I had its brickwork made. I offered a sacrifice to the god Kulla, the lord of foundations (and) brickwork, and to the god Mušda, the master builder of the god Enlil. I strewed aromatic offerings, and recited a šuilakku-prayer.

In the month Abu (V) — the month of the descent (from heaven) of the god Gibil, who dries out the moist field(s) (and) lays the foundation of citi(es) and house(s) — I laid its foundation and established its brickwork.

I built inside it for the deities Ea, Sîn and Ningal, Adad, Šamaš, (and) Ninurta firmly-founded daises which were made as firm as the mountains.

At their august command, I built a palace using (lit.: “of”) elephant ivory, ebony, boxwood, musukkannu-wood, cedar, cypress, daprānu-juniper, and terebinth to be my royal residence; I fashioned a bīt-ḫilāni, a replica of a Hittite palace, in front of their gates and roofed them with beams of cedar (and) cypress.

I made the length of its wall 16,280 cubits, (corresponding to) the rendering of my name, and I made its foundation secure upon (blocks of) massive mountain stone. In front and in back, on both sides, facing the eight winds, I opened eight gates (in the city wall). I named the gate of the god Šamaš and the gate of the god Adad that face the east “The God Šamaš Is the One Who Makes Me Triumph” (and) “The God Adad Is the One Who Maintains Its Prosperity” (respectively). I called the gate(s) of the god Enlil and the goddess Mullissu that face the north “The God Enlil Is the One Who Establishes the Foundation of My City” (and) “The Goddess Mullissu Is the One Who Restores Abundance” (respectively). I made the name(s) of the gate(s) of the god Anu and the goddess Ištar that face the west “The God Anu Is the One Who Makes My Undertakings Successful” (and) “The Goddess Ištar Is the One Who Makes Its People Flourish” (respectively). (70) I pronounced the names of the gate of the god Ea and the gate of the goddess Bēlet-ilī that face the south (to be) “The God Ea Is the One Who Keeps Its Spring(s) in Good Order” (and) “The Goddess Bēlet-Ilī Is the One Who Increases Its (Animals’) Offspring” (respectively). Its (city) wall was (called) “The God Aššur Is the One Who Prolongs the Reign of Its Royal Builder (and) Protects His Offspring.” Its outer wall was (called) “The God Ninurta Is the One Who Establishes the Foundation of the Wall for (All) Days to Come.”

People from the four (quarters of the world), (speaking) foreign language(s) (and of) diverse speech, those who had dwelt in (both) mountain(s) and (low)land(s), as many as the “Light of the Gods” (Šamaš), the lord of all, shepherded, whom I had carried off as booty by the power of my staff at the command of the god Aššur, my lord, I made act in concert and (re)settled (them) inside it (Dūr-Šarrukīn). I commissioned native Assyrians, masters of every craft, as overseers (and) commanders to instruct (the settlers) in correct behavior (and how) to revere god and king.

The gods who dwell in heaven (and) netherworld, and in this city, were amenable to my prayer and granted me the eternal (privilege of) building (this) city and growing old in it.

(As for) the one who alters the work of my hands, mutilates my features (on a relief), obliterates the reliefs that I have engraved (lit.: “engrave”), (or) effaces my own representation(s), may the gods Aššur, Šamaš, Adad, and the gods who dwell there remove his name (and) his descendant(s) from the land and make him live in bondage under his enemy.