After the middle of the 12th century BC follows a long period of neglect, but after with the conquest of Babylonia by the Assyrian Sargon II, at the close of the 8th century BC, the city revives. Under Ashurbanipal, about the middle of the 7th century BC, we find Ekur restored with a splendour greater than ever before, the ziggurat of that period being 58 by 39 m.