Two thousand years ago, it might have been the Napa Valley of Mesopotamia. Today, the ancient Assyrian wine factory sits among large stone carvings alongside an almost 4 mile irrigation canal near Khannis in northern Iraq.
The 14 stone basins cut into white rock were once used during the reign of the Assyrian King Sennacherib in the late 8th and early 7th century B.C. for large-scale winemaking, according to the team of archaeologists from the Department of Antiquities in Dahuk. The team unveiled the discovery last week alongside their colleagues at Italy’s University of Udine. It is believed to be the oldest industrial wine press discovered in northern Mesopotamia.
