The Mitanni Empire came to prominence at a time when the Egyptians, the Hittites, and the Assyrians were all angling for supremacy, after the fall of Babylon in the 16th century BCE. Mitanni made alliances and conquered other lands, excelled at the military art of charioteering, suffered invasions, endured assassinations, and saw a dynasty rise and fall. In what is now southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and Syria - but was then the upper Tigris-Euphrates basin - the Mitanni Empire at its peak reached the coast of the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and extended into Assyria to the east. After the kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians, Mitanni became a vassal state of the land it had once dominated, and evidence of its renown slowly faded from history.

For more than 3,000 years, the Mitanni Empire remained largely forgotten. Recently, archaeological excavations and translations of ancient texts have shed some light on these remarkable people who were the equals of their more-famous peers in Egypt, Hatti, and Assyria.