Assyrian homeland

The Assyrian homeland, or Assyria, is the ancestral territory of the Assyrian people, where Assyrian civilisation developed, in Upper Mesopotamia in West Asia. Like the rest of Mesopotamia it is now divided among Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. In Iran the Urmia Plain forms a thin north-western margin of the homeland and is its only part beyond Mesopotamia. The ancient Assyrians built their civilisation around the city of Assur on the eastern border of northern Mesopotamia, in a territory the Tigris divided through the centre. Today Assyrians largely recognise as their indigenous land the towns and cities next to the Tigris to the east, together with Mesopotamia, because major centres such as Nineveh, Assur and Nimrud stood on its banks. Modern Assyrians are mostly Christian and speak Neo-Aramaic languages, chiefly Suret and Turoyo.